1- 


^*  PRINCETON,  N.  J.  ^ 

Presented    by~^  V .  ^ J\^  rc  •  cA  .  \ j  CA  \\ 


BV  3142  .H35  H35  1903 
Hamlin,  Alfred  Dwight 

Foster,  1855-1926. 
In  memoriam.  Rev.  Cyrus 

Kami  "in 


Cyrus  Hamlin,  Student,  1834 


IFn  ^emoriam 


IRev*  C^rus  Mamlin,  2):d.,x.x.35). 


'  Strbant  of  ^ob,  fetll  bone ! 
^£St  from  tijg  lobcb  emplog  ; 
S^bc  battU  fought,  t^£  bittorg  feon, 
Sntn  t^g  Piaster's  jog." 


-31*- 


BOSTON 

1Publisbe&  privateliP 

X903 


Press  of  J.  J.  Arakelyan 

2Q5  Congress  St. 

Boston 


FOREWORD 

The  preparation  of  this  little  book  has  been  undertaken  as  a 
tribute  of  filial  love  to  a  dear  parent,  and  as  an  expression  of  the 
grateful  regard  in  which  Dr.  Hamlin's  family  hold  the  devoted 
friendship  of  the  hundreds  of  friends  who  contributed  so  greatly 
to  the  happiness  of  Dr.  Hamlin's  life  and  to  the  sweetening  of 
his  hours  of  trial  and  sorrow.  No  man  ever  tasted  the  joys  of 
friendship  more  abundantly  and  fully  than  he,  and  next  to  his 
sublime  Christian  faith  there  was  in  his  life  no  deeper  source  of 
felicity  than  the  afifection  of  his  family  and  of  his  wide  and  yet 
choice  circle  of  friends.  To  all  of  these — to  all  who  loved  him  in 
life,  and  who,  now  that  he  has  departed  from  us  for  a  season, 
cherish  his  memory  as  a  blessed  inspiration,  this  little  record  of 
his  life  and  death  and  of  the  words  spoken  by  his  friends,  is  grate- 
fully dedicated. 

The  compiler  of  this   brief  record,  through  a  son,  has  preferred 

to  write  in  an  impersonal  style,  as  a  chronicler  from  the  outside, 

rather  than  to  obtrude  his  own  personality,  feeling  and  emotions 

upon  the  reader's  attention.    At  the  same  time,  writing  for  friends 

only  and  not  for  the  general  public,  he  has  included  some  details 

and  extracts  from  letters  which  would  perhaps  have  been  omitted 

from  a  biography  intended  for  the  public.    He  begs  to  express  his 

grateful  obligations  to  those  friends  whose  liberal  subscriptions 

made  possible  the  publication  of  this  memorial. 

A.  D.  F.  Hamlin. 
Columbia  University,  June,  1903. 


CYRUS  HAMLIN  D.D.  L.L.D. 

A  Christian  hero,  a  missionary,  educator  and  states- 
man, passed  away  from  earth  when  Cyrus  HamUn  was 
called  to  his  great  reward  on  the  night  of  August  8,  1900. 
His  death,  coming  to  him  as  "in  the  harness,"  with  no 
prolonged  sickness,  with  no  break-down  or  clouding  of 
the  intellect,  brought  to  a  beautiful  and  fitting  close  a 
career  remarkable  in  its  achievements  and  its  environ- 
ment. With  the  exception  of  Elias  Riggs,  who  died  not 
long  after.  Dr.  Hamlin  was  at  the  time  of  his  death  the 
last  of  that  company  of  pioneer  missionaries  of  the  Amer- 
ican Board  who,  in  the  first  half  of  the  last  century,  laid 
in  the  Sandwich  Islands,  in  India,  China  and  Turkey,  the 
foundations  of  the  splendid  work  of  Christian  civili- 
zation and  enlightenment  which  has  crowned  with  such 
glory  the  missionary  enterprises  of  American  Christians, 
and  done  so  much  to  break  down  old  superstitions  and 
lift  up  degraded  humankind.  Greater  things  may  be  in 
store  for  the  future  of  missions,  but  nevermore   work 


6  Cyrus  Ha77ilin 

like  that  wrought  by  these  men.  The  railway,  the  steam- 
ship and  the  electric  wire  have  brought  the  "ends  of  the 
earth"  nearer  together  than  the  extremes  of  a  single 
country  were  in  their  day ;  and  it  is  hardly  possible  that 
any  future  career  can  surpass,  if  it  can  equal,  the  pic- 
turesque and  romantic  aspects  of  the  lives  and  labors  of 
these  pioneers,  and  particularly  of  Cyrus  Hamlin.  Born 
in  the  days  of  Napoleon,  he  lived  to  see  the  days  of  Mc- 
Kinley :  brought  up  in  the  days  of  the  stage-coach  and 
spinning-wheel,  he  witnessed  the  birth  of  wireless  teleg- 
raphy. When  he  went  to  Constantinople  in  1838-39, 
that  city  was  still  in  the  Middle  Ages,  and  no  man  might 
pass  the  Sultan's  palace  on  horseback  or  on  wheels : 
when  he  died,  Stamboul  was  but  eleven  days  distant 
from  New  York,  and  one  might  ride  into  the  capital  in  a 
luxurious  drawing-room  car.  His  career  was  as  excep- 
tional as  the  conditions  under  which  it  was  run.  As  a 
missionary  teacher,  he  introduced  into  mission  work  the 
conception  of  the  value  of  secular  education  as  an  adjunct 
to  evangelism ;  of  English  as  the  vehicle  for  such  teach- 
ing; of  manual  training  and  industrial  work  as  essential 
elements  in  the  uplifting  of  degraded  peoples  and  in  the 
cultivation  of  independence  and  resource.  He  gave  a 
mighty  impulse   to   the   intellectual   awakening  of  the 


His  Career  y 

Armenians  and  contributed  greatly  to  the  purification  of 
their  language.    As  a  philanthropist  he  labored  among 
the  plague-spots  of  cholera  and  saved  thousands  of  lives 
from  that  Eastern  scourge ;   supplied  good  bread  to  the 
sick  and  wounded  in  the  hospitals  at  Scutari  during  the 
Crimean  War,  cleansed  the  vermin-infested  clothing  of 
the  fever-stricken  British  troops  when  no  one  else  could 
be  found  to  attempt  the  repulsive  task,  and  with  the  pro- 
ceeds of  these  industries  built  thirteen  mission  churches 
in  Asia  Minor.    A  consummate  organizer,  he  founded  in 
Robert  College  an  institution  which  has  profoundly  in- 
fluenced the  moral  and  political  destinies  of  south-eastern 
Europe.  A  scientist,  he  helped  set  up  the  first  telegraph, 
and  lit  the  first  electric  light  ever  seen  in  the  Sultan's 
dominions.    A  diplomatist,  he  checkmated  the  intrigues 
■of  France  and  Russia  against  Robert  College,  and  tri- 
umphed  over   Turkish   dilatoriness   and  craft,   leagued 
with  those  powers  to   destroy  the  college  if  possible. 
Yet  less  than  half  his  life  was  spent  in  Turkey:   what 
features  of  romantic  interest  might  have  been  added  to 
his  career  had  he  been  permitted  to  return  to  Turkey, 
as  he  longed  to  do,  and  there  complete  and  live  to  its 
€nd  the  life  of  labor  and  love  of  which  thirty-five  years 
had  been  given  to  that  land  and  her  people ! 


8  Cyrus  Hamlin 

Yet  the  twenty-seven  years  he  was  permitted  to  spend 
in  his  native  land  after  his  return  in  1873  were  not  lost  to 
the  cause  of  missions.  His  voice  was  never  silent,  nor 
his  pen  inactive,  when  the  interests  of  that  cause  were 
attacked  or  imperilled.  As  a  writer  of  books  at  New 
Haven,  as  a  professor  of  theology  at  Bangor,  as  a  college 
president  at  Middlebury,  as  a  lecturer,  preacher  and 
mission-agent  at  Lexington,  and  as  an  American  citizen 
and  a  Christian  always,  he  championed  the  cause  of  the 
oppressed  Armenians,  the  rights  of  American  citizens  in 
Turkey,  and  the  interests  of  education  as  a  most  power- 
ful lever  for  missionary  efficiency,  standing  always  for 
positive  beliefs  and  consistent  action  in  theology,  poli- 
tics, temperance  work  and  mission  activities.  His  deep 
affection  for  the  Armenians  never  waned,  nor  did  his  de- 
votion to  their  welfare  flag,  to  the  end  of  his  life ;  and 
he  was  mourned  by  them  as  their  dearest  friend  and 
father.  In  the  last  hour  of  his  life  he  addressed  a  meeting 
in  the  chapel  of  the  Second  Parish  Church  in  Portland, 
where,  sixty-three  years  before,  he  had  been  ordained  to 
the  Christian  ministry,  and  where,  seventy-one  years  be- 
fore, he  had  declared  before  men  his  faith  in  Christ  and 
determination  to  serve  Him.  His  was  preeminently  an 
abundant  life,  full  to  overflowing  with  labors  of  love  and 


Early  Life  g 

abounding  in  remarkable  and  triumphant  successes,  ac- 
complished under  the  controlling  inspiration  of  an  un- 
shakable faith  in  God's  wisdom  and  goodness.  "Divine 
Providence  never  makes  a  mistake"  he  said  in  one  of 
the  darkest  moments  of  apparent  defeat  and  failure ;  and 
he  was  accustomed  to  refer  to  his  "five  failures  in  life"  as 
five  stepping-stones,  under  God's  leading,  to  final  success 
in  cherished  plans  and  enterprises. 

In  these  pages  it  is  my  desire  to  place  before  those 
who  knew  and  loved  him,  a  few  of  the  tributes  spoken 
and  published  at  the  time  of  his  death,  at  the  funeral, 
and  at  memorial  services,  together  with  a  brief  summary 
of  the  leading  events  of  his  life,  as  a  memorial  of  a  life 
and  of  a  character  of  exceptional  worth. 
js         >         J* 

Cyrus  Hamlin  was  born  in  Waterford,  Maine,  a  small 

farming  village  some  forty  miles  northwest  of  Portland, 

on  the  the  5th  of  January,  181 1.     In  his 
Early  Life 

early  boyhood  the  memories  of  the  war  of 

1812  and  even  of  the  Revolution  were  still  fresh  in  peo- 
ple's minds,  and  were  subjects  of  frequent  conversation ; 
the  "Louisiana  Purchase"  was  still  an  almost  unex- 
plored country;  Maine  had  not  yet  been  separated 
from  Massachusetts ;  and  Greece  was  still  a  province  of 


10  Cyrus  Ha?nlin 

Turkey.   George  Stephenson  had  not  yet  built  the  "Rock- 
et," and  steam  river-navigation  was  in  its  infancy.    Cy- 
rus HamHn  lived  to  see  his  country  pass  through  four 
wars;    he  watched  the  growth  of  steam  transportation 
from  the  date  of  the  first  practicable  railway  to  its  mag- 
nificent extension  at  the  end  of  the  century ;  he  witnessed 
the  birth  of  the  telegraph  and  saw  those  triumphs  of  elec- 
trical science  in  the  telephone  and  in  electric  transit, 
which  are  among  the  crowning  achievements  of  the  nine- 
teenth century.    During  his  life  industry  was  revolution- 
ized, the  earth  girdled  with  steam-routes  by  sea  and  land, 
and  the  map  of  Europe  made  over;   American  Foreign 
Missions  were  born  and  developed  into  one  of  the  might- 
iest of  forces  for  the  hastening  of  the  coming  of  the 
Kingdom  of  Righteousness,  and  the  United  States  grew 
from  a  weak  state  menaced  by  European  empires  into  the 
foremost  power  among  the  nations.    His  life  covered  all 
that  was  most  marvelous  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and 
when  his  eyes  closed  to  the  sights  of  earth  on  the  8th 
of  August,  1900,  the  century  was  within  five  months  of 
its  end.     How  wide  awake  had  he  always  been  to  its 
movements  and  progress ! 

His  father  having  died  in  Cyrus'  infancy,  the  boy's  early 
life  was  devoted  to  the  hardest  kind  of  farm  work,  in 


Boyhood  and  Touth  ii 

company  with  his  brother  Hannibal  (who  died  in  1862 
at  Washington,  D.  C).  At  16  years  of  age  he  went  to 
Portland  to  serve  an  apprenticeship  at  silversmithing  in 
the  store  of  his  brother-in-law,  the  late  Charles  Farley. 
During  this  apprenticeship  he  confessed  Christ  and 
joined  the  Second  Parish  Church  (1829)  under  the 
preaching  of  Dr.  Payson.  He  was  shortly  afterward  led 
to  the  conviction  that  his  duty  was  to  study  for  the  min- 
istry, and  after  a  year  at  Bridgeton  Academy  (North 
Bridgeton,  Maine)  he  entered  Bowdoin  College  in  the 
class  of  1834,  graduating  with  high  honors  in  a  class  of 
rather  more  than  the  average  of  ability.  His  theological 
studies  at  Bangor  Seminary  were  completed  in  1837  and 
at  their  close  he  was  accepted  as  a  missionary  of  the 
American  Board,  and  ordained  at  Portland  on  the  3d 
of  October,  1837.  He  had  expected  an  assignment  to  the 
African  field,  but  when  the  order  came  to  go  to  Con- 
stantinople for  educational  work,  he  obeyed  with  a 
soldier's  promptness.  Owing,  however,  to  the  limited  re- 
sources of  the  Board,  his  departure  was  delayed  a  year : 
and  during  this  interval  he  was  engaged  in  preaching 
as  "pastoral  supply"  at  the  Second  Parish  Church  in 
Portland,  and  at  the  Union  Church  at  Worcester,  Mass. 
September  3,  1838,  he  was  married  to  Henrietta  Lo- 


12  Cyrus  Hamlin 

raine  Jackson,  and  on  the  third  of  December  he  sailed 
with  his  bride  on  the  "Eunomus"  for  Smyrna,  en  route 
for  Constantinople,  where  he  arrived  about  the  twenty- 
ninth  of  January,  1839. 

Of  the  details  of  his  missionary  career  this  is  not  the 
place  to  speak.  They  must  be  sought  out  in  his  books* 
and  in  the  files  of  the  "Missionary  Herald."  Only  the 
dry  outlines  can  be  given.  After  the  necessary  period  of 
apprenticeship  in  the  Armenian  and  Turkish  languages, 
he  began  his  educational  work  by  establishing  an  in- 
stitution for  the  training  of  Armenians  for  both  secular 
and  clerical  careers :  a  sort  of  high-school  and  theologi- 
cal institute  combined.  This  was  opened  Nov.  4,  1840, 
in  hired  quarters  at  Bebek  on  the  Bosphorus,  a  quiet  and 
beautifully  situated  village  which  was  his  home  for  the 
next  thirty-one  years.  He  was  joined  in  1843  by  Rev. 
Geo.  W.  Wood,  who  was  his  faithful  friend  through  life ; 
but  who  was  obliged  a  few  years  later  to  return  to  the 
United  States.  Mr.  Hamlin  continued  in  its  administra- 
tion until  1856,  when  he  was  given  a  leave  of  absence 
for  a  short  visit  to  the  United  States.  During  his  ab- 
sence   the    seminary    was    placed    in    the    hands    of    a 

'^  Among  the  Turks,  1877;  American  Tract  Society,  New  York. 
My  Life  and  Times,  1893 ;  Congregational  Publishing  Society, 
Boston. 


Educational  Convictions  ij 

Rev.  William  Clark :  but  at  the  expiration  of  his  year's 
engagement,  Mr.  Clark  was  allowed  to  withdraw,  and  Mr. 
Hamlin  was  restored  to  the  control  of  the  seminary, 
which  he  held  until  its  discontinuance  in  1859,  prelim- 
inary to  its  removal  to  Marsovan.  Upon  this  Mr.  Ham- 
lin resigned  from  the  service  of  the  Board  and  accepted 
the  presidency  of  the  college  which  the  late  C.  R.  Rob- 
ert of  New  York  proposed  to  establish  at  Constanti- 
nople :   of  this  more  presently. 

During  these  twenty-one  years  Mr.  Hamlin  had  de- 
veloped very  strong  convictions  as  tO'  the  importance  of 
secular  education  as  an  adjunct  to  direct  religious  work 
in  missions,  and  the  desirability  of  making  English  the 
■medium  and  vehicle  for  the  higher  education  of  Orientals, 
as  the  only  language  under  which  Armenians,  Greeks, 
Turks  and  Bulgarians  could  unite  in  such  schools  as  he 
advocated.  His  was  the  prophetic  eye,  and  these  were 
the  fundamental  principles  of  the  college  that  was  to  be 
the  crowning  work  of  his  career.  But  he  was  ahead  of  his 
time ;  some  of  his  colleagues  conscientiously  opposed 
these  views,  and  they  were  not  well  received  at  the 
Mission  Rooms  in  Boston.  The  removal  of  the  seminary 
to  Marsovan  was  only  a  part  of  the  plan  to  "rescue"  it 


l/f  Cyrus  Hamlin 

from  Dr.  Hamlin's  secularizing  and  anglicizing  adminis- 
tration, as  some  viewed  it :  and  his  resignation  was  partly 
due  to  his  unwillingness  to  lend  himself  to  the  carrying 
out  of  principles  in  which  he  did  not  believe,  partly  to 
his  feeling  that  his  work  and  methods  had  received,  by 
this  move,  the  stamp  of  official  disapproval.  It  was  the 
first  "great  failure"  of  his  life,  out  of  which  greater  suc- 
cess was  to  spring. 

It  was  during  these  years  that  the  Crimean  war 
brought  him  those  opportunities  for  industrial  activity 
of  which  he  availed  himself  in  such  extraordinary  fashion 
that  he  was  able,  out  of  the  proceeds,  to  meet  the  cost  of 
building  thirteen  church  edifices  for  Protestant  com- 
munities in  Asia  Minor.  He  established  bakeries  and 
took  contracts  for  supplying  the  great  hospitals  at  Scu- 
tari and  Kooleli  with  white  bread  such  as  was  nowhere 
else  known  in  Turkey,  the  supply  rising  to  thousands  of 
loaves  daily.  He  undertook  to  wash  the  filthy  and  ver- 
min-infested blankets  and  underclothing  of  the  British 
troops,  which  no  one  else  would  touch,  by  means  of 
washing  machines  of  his  own  design,  made  from  British 
beer-hogsheads.  He  did  this  with  profit  to  the  mission 
and  to  scores  of  native  women  employed  in  his  laundry. 
He  carried  on  these  activities,  upon  borrowed  capital. 


Family   Record  75 

in  addition  to  his  regular  educational  work,  and  netted 
twenty-five  thousand  dollars  which  he  bestowed  upon 
the  thirteen  churches  referred  to.  Meanwhile  he  had  al- 
ways been  active  in  preaching,  translating  text-books, 
carrying  on  a  voluminous  correspondence,  and  visiting 
the  houses  of  the  sick  and  the  worst  centers  of  the 
cholera  and  the  plague,  until  he  was  not  infrequently 
saluted  with  the  title  of  "Hekim-Bashi  (Head-Physician) 
Hamlin." 

*fi^  •?•  «^ 

During  these  twenty-one  years,  also,  there  had  been 
births,  marriages  and  deaths  in  the  family.    The  children 
born  were : 
Henrietta  Ann  Loraine,  born  Dec.   5,   1839;    married 

Rev.  George  Washburn  (now  president  of  Robert 

College)  in  1859. 

Susan  Elizabeth,  born  May  6,  1842;  died  1858. 

Margaret  Caroline,  born  Sept.  10,  1845 ;  married  Wil- 
liam H.  Vail,  M.D.  in  1872;  died  April  8,  1887. 

Abigail  Frances,  born  Nov.  10,  1847;  married  Rev. 
Charles  Anderson,  now  Dean  and  Professor  in  Rob- 
ert College,  in  1873. 

Mary  Rebecca,  born  July  29,  1850;  died  in  September 
1852. 

Mrs.  Hamlin,  a  woman  of  rare  beauty,  both  of  person 
and  character,  died  November  14,  1850,  on  the  Island  of 


l6  Cyrus  Hamlin 

Rhodes,  whither  Mr.  HamHn  had  taken  her  in  a  vain 
effort  to  restore  her  shattered  health. 

Mr.  HamHn  was  married  again,  on  the  eighteenth  of 
May,  1852,  to  Miss  Harriet  Martha  Lovell,  a  missionary 
teacher  who  had  come  to  Constantinople  in  1845  to  take 
charge  of  a  new  school  for  Armenian  girls  established  by 
the  mission.    This  very  happy  union  was  terminated  at 
the  end  of  five  short  years  by  the  death  of  Mrs.  Hamlin, 
November  6,  1857.    She  left  two  children  : 
Harriet  Clara,  born  March  3,  1853 !   married  in  1889  to 
Rev.  L.  O.  Lee,  D.D.,  missionary  at  Marash,  Tur- 
key;  died  January  23,  1902,  at  Marash. 
Alfred  Dwight  Foster,  born  September  5,  1855,  now  res- 
ident in  New  York,  as  adjunct  Professor  in  Colum- 
bia University. 
In  1859,  on  the  fifth  of  November,  Dr.  Hamlin  mar- 
ried Miss  Mary  Eliza  Tenney,then  a  missionary  at  Tocat, 
m  Asia  Minor ;  her  children  were  five,  of  whom  four  sur- 
vive: 

Mary  Ann  Robert,  born  June  8,  1862 ;   married  in  1896 
to  Rev.  George  E.  Ladd,  now  pastor  of  the  Con- 
gregational church  at  Randolph,  Vermont. 
Emma  Catherine,  bom  FebrUiary  29,  1864,  now  living 

with  Mrs.  Hamlin  at  Lexington,  Mass. 
William  Maltby,  born  March  4,  1866;   died  October  7, 
1871. 

Alice  Julia,  born  Dec.  20,  1867;  married  in  1897  to  Ed- 
gar L.  Hinman,  now  Professor  in  the  University  of 
Nebraska,  Lincoln,  Nebraska. 


Visit  to   United  States 


n 


Christopher  Robert,  bom  October  ii,  1870,  now  pastor 
of  Plymouth  Congregational  Church,  Lincoln,  Neb- 
raska. 

In  1854  Mr,  Hamlin  received  the  degree  of  Doctor  of 

Divinity  from  Bowdoin  College;  in  1861  that  of  S.T.D, 

from  Harvard  University,  and  of  LL.D.  in  1870  from 

New  York  University. 

t^"  tj^  %Ir^ 

In  i860  Dr.  Hamlin  with  his  wife  made  a  second  visit 
to  the  United  States,  to  confer  with  Mr.  C.  R.  Robert  of 
New  York  City  regarding  a  proposed  college  to  be  estab- 
lished at  Constantinople,  and  which  Mr.  Robert  desired 
to  entrust  to  Dr.  Hamlin  as  its  organizer  and  president. 
The  first  suggestion  of  such  an  institution  came  from 
two  sons'  of  Dr.  H.  G.  O.  Dwight,  one  of  Dr.  Hamlin's 
missionary  colleagues;  young  men  who  had  graduated 
respectively  in  medicine  and  theology  with  the  purpose 
of  teaching  those  branches  in  such  a  college.  Mr.  Robert 
had  become  interested  in  the  enterprise ;  but  he  insisted 
on  such  radical  changes  in  the  original  scheme,  that  the 
Dwights  felt  compelled  to  withdraw,  and  the  work  was 
placed  in  Dr.  Hamlin's  hands.  After  a  year  in  the  United 

^The  late  Dr.  James  D.  Dwight,  and  Rev.  W.  B.  Dwight,  now 
Professor  of  Geology  at  Vassar  College :  graduates  of  Yale  in 
1852  and  1854. 


l8  Cyrus  Hamlin 

States  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Hamlin  returned  to  Constantinople, 
where  two  years  were  spent  in  efforts  to  secure  a  suita- 
ble building-site ;  and  after  a  site  had  finally  been  pur- 
chased, in  fruitless  attempts  to  obtain  a  permit  to  build. 
It  was  finally  decided  to  hire  the  disused  seminary  build- 
ing at  Bebek  from  the  American  Board  for  the  college, 
and  here  in  1863  it  was  opened  with  four  students.  For 
eight  years  it  was  conducted  in  this  building  with  funds 
furnished  by  Mr.  Robert,  until  it  became  self-supporting 
or  very  nearly  so.  Its  trustees,  business  men  and  clergy- 
men in  New  York,  were  incorporated  under  the  laws  of 
that  state,  and  its  charter  was  granted  by  the  Regents  of 
the  University  of  New  York.  It  was,  and  is,  a  secular 
but  Christian  college 'of  high  grade;  conducted  chiefly 
in  English,  by  a  teaching-staff  largely  American.  It  thus 
embodied  completely  those  views  for  which  Dr.  Hamlin 
had  contended  in  the  old  seminary,  and  its  magnificent 
success  has  been  the  monument  to  the  statesmanlike 
foresight  of  those  views.  To  its  liberalizing  and  uplift- 
ing tendencies  Bulg^aria  owes  in  a  large  degree  her  emer- 
gence from  a  virtual  serfdom  into  practical  independence, 
and  the  college  early  became  and  has  always  been,  an  un- 
assailable lighthouse  of  progress  in  a  benighted  empire. 
For  seven  years  Dr.  Hamlin  strove  pertinaciously  to 


Robert  College  Built  ig 

obtain  the  permit  to  built  upon  the  new  and  superior 
site  at  RumeH-Hissar,  which  had  been  acquired  in  1861. 
Both  the  Jesuit-French  and  the  Russian  influences,  then 
strong  at  the  SubHme  Porte,  were  leagued  with 
the  Ottoman  opposition  to  prevent  the  building 
of  the  college,  and  American  diplomacy,  preoc- 
cupied with  the  embarrassments  of  our  Civil  War, 
failed  to  score  against  the  combination.  But  in 
1868  Admiral  Farragut  visited  Constantinople  in  the 
course  of  that  memorable  last  cruise  which  took  him 
to  so  many  other  European  capitals,  where  he  was 
received  and  feted  with  extraordinary  honors.  By  a 
curious  misconception  of  the  object  of  his  visit,  the 
Turks  connected  it  with  the  demand  for  the  permit 
to  build  the  college.  Embarrassed  by  the  Cretan  re- 
bellion, then  assuming  serious  proportions,  and  fearing 
lest  the  "Great  Admiral"  might  have  been  sent  to  give 
aid  and  comfort  to  the  rebels  if  rebuffed  in  the  supposed 
object  of  his  mission.  Sultan  Abdul  Aziz  hastened  to 
grant  an  Imperial  Irade  or  rescript,  placing  the  property 
and  rights  of  the  college  upon  a  secure  and  unassailable 
foundation,  and  in  a  few  months  the  long  delayed  permit 
to  build  was  issued.  In  May,  1871,  the  college  moved 
to  its  splendid  property  on  the  heights  of  Rumeli-Hissar. 


20  Cyrus  Hamlin 

Dr.  Hamlin  made  a  short  visit  to  the  United  States  in 
1 871,  spending  a  few  months  in  efforts  to  raise  endow- 
ments for  professorships;  and  finally  returned  again, 
with  his  family,  in  1873  to  spend  a  year  in  a  further  cam- 
paign for  funds.  The  great  financial  panic  of  1873  made 
this  an  almost  impossible  quest ;  and  Dr.  Hamlin,  with 
heroic  devotion  to  the  college,  refusing  tO'  accept  any 
regular  salary,  supported  himself  and  family  not  for  one 
but  for  nearly  four  years,  by  preaching,  writing  and  lec- 
turing in  behalf  of  the  college,  turning  into  its  treasury 
every  cent  over  the  barest  necessary  living  expenses,  be- 
sides raising  twenty-six  thousand  dollars  towards  its  en- 
dowment. The  reward  of  these  labors  was  that  he  was 
informed  by  Mr.  Robert,  in  1877,  that  his  services  were 
no  longer  wanted  as  the  president  of  Robert  College. 
No  explanation  was  vouchsafed,  and  none  was  asked. 
His  resignation  was  instantly  handed  in  and  all  further 
intercourse  with  Mr.  Robert  discontinued.  At  sixty-six 
years  of  age  he  was  literally  turned  out  by  the  man  to 
whom  he  had  given  the  absolute  devotion  of  seventeen 
years  of  indefatigable  and  wearing  service,  and  left 
stranded  without  employment  and  without  financial  re- 
sources to  fall  back  upon,  with  a  family  to  support  and 
four  young  children  to  educate.    Influences,  working  in 


Dark  Days  21 

secret,  had 'operated  on  Mr.  Robert's  mind  to  discredit 
Dr.  Hamlin's  work  in  Robert  College;  and  Mr.  Robert 
dismissed  him  without  a  word  of  regret,  apparently  with 
indifference. 

The  tragedy   of  this   curt  dismissal  only  those   can 
appreciate   who    knew   the    intensity   of   Dr.    Hamlin's 
devotion  to   Robert  College  and  his   unswerving  loy- 
alty to  Mr.  Robert.  It  came  like  a  stab  to  the  heart  from 
the  man  whose  friendship  he  had  cherished  with  enthu- 
siastic fidelity.    It  was  a  sorrow  to  be  suffered  in  silence. 
Dr.  Hamlin  refused  to  discredit  the  college  in  the  public 
estimation  by  making  known  the  injury  to  himself.    He 
never    realized    his    unappeasable    longing    to    return 
to    Constantinople,   though   his    eyes   often   filled   with 
tears  at  the  mention  of  the  scenes  of  his  life's  work, 
so    dear  to   him.     The   story   of   his   heroic   struggles 
under  the  crushing  weight  of  a  deeply-felt  wrong  and  a 
vanished  friendship  is  too  painful  to  dwell  upon.     The 
years  from  1877  to  1880  were  years  of  patient  endurance 
and  incessant  work.    "Among  the  Turks'"  was  written 
in  the  first  three  months  after  this  staggering  shock — an- 
other of  the  great  "defeats"  of  his  life.    Then  there  came 
to  him,  the  same  year,  the  providential  call  to  a  chair  in 
*  New  York,  American  Tract  Society. 


22  Cyrus  Hamlin 

Bangor  Seminary,  which  he  held  for  three  years.  In 
1880,  however,  he  resigned  this  chair  under  circumstan- 
ces which  again  severely  tried  but  did  not  shake  his  faith 
and  courage.  His  advocacy  of  the  cause  of  Prohibition, 
to  which  he  was  driven  by  the  open  and  flagrant  politi- 
cal activity  of  the  rumsellers  in  Bangor,  became  dis- 
pleasing to  men  of  influence  in  as  well  as  out  of  the 
Seminary ;  and  a  vote  of  the  trustees  to  "look  out  for  a 
younger  man"  brought  his  instant  resignation.  At  sev- 
enty he  was  again  without  work  or  means.  But  that 
Providence  which,  as  he  believed,  "never  makes  a  mis- 
take," lifted  him  out  of  disaster  into  the  presidency  of 
Middlebury  College  in  Vermont.  This  institution,  which 
was  in  a  moribund  condition  when  it  called  him,  he 
rescued  and  set  upon  its  feet  again,  and  when  he  had 
completed  the  five  years  for  which  he  had  accepted  the 
post,  he  refused  the  reelection  pressed  upon  him  by  the 
trustees.  He  felt  himself  vindicated  by  this  evidence 
that,  in  spite  of  Mr.  Robert's  opinion  ten  years  before, 
these  men  of  affairs  believed  him  still,  at  seventy-five, 
fully  competent  to  administer  the  affairs  of  a  college. 
This  vindication,  like  a  healing  balm,  soothed  his  later 
years.  He  bought  a  house  and  land  at  Lexington, 
Mass.,  and  for  the  first  time  in  his  life  owned  his  own 


Cyrus  Hamlin,  Missionary,  1855 


Life  at  Lexington  2J 

home.  Here  he  Hved  for  fifteen  years,  delighting  in  the 
quiet  enjoyments  of  the  family  circle,  cultivating  the  gar- 
den, taking  his  part  as  an  active  citizen  in  the  town  af- 
fairs, and  preaching  and  lecturing  as  an  agent  of  the 
American  Board  of  Missions.  His  salary  in  this  capac- 
ity was  not  large,  but  prudence,  frugality  and  diligence, 
those  fine  old  virtues  which  he  had  inherited  from  a 
worthy  New  England  ancestry,  and  developed  during  a 
long  life  of  absolute  unselfishness,  saved  him  from  want 
or  worry.  As  the  years  went  by,  the  pang  of  his  great 
sorrow  subsided,  and  though  the  pain  of  it  never  wholly 
disappeared,  peace  and  serenity  filled  his  soul  increas- 
ingly. He  saw  three  of  his  children  in  Lexington  marry 
and  repair  to  their  new  hearth-sides — Mary,  Ahce  and 
Christopher — while  two  others  were  married  away  from 
home — Alfred  and  Clara.  He  saw  his  youngest  son  en- 
ter upon  the  Christian  ministry  at  Canton  Centre,  Con- 
necticut, an  event  which  gave  him  peculiar  satisfaction. 
To  all  the  widely  scattered  branches  of  the  family,  to 
children  and  grandchildren  and  great-grandchildren,  he 
sent  frequent  letters,  pouring  out  in  them  a  love  wonder- 
fully rich  and  tender.  His  visits  to  one  and  another 
fireside  of  his  children  were  hailed  with  delight  by  old 
and  young,  and  every  visit  seemed  to  leave  behind  the  in- 


2^  Cyrus  Hamlin 

fluence  of  a  benediction.  Peculiarly  tender  and  strong 
were  his  friendships  with  a  number  of  men  of  his  own 
generation,  like  the  Rev.  Dr.  Haskins  of  Brooklyn,  Rev. 
Geo.  W.  Wood,  his  early  colleague  at  Bebek ;  Rev.  E.  B. 
Webb,  formerly  of  Boston ;  his  cousin  Dr.  George  Faulk- 
ner of  Jamaica  Plain ;  and  with  men  somewhat  younger 
like  the  late  Joseph  Cook,  at  whose  home  on  Lake 
George  he  was  a  frequent  visitor.  All  of  these  except  Dr. 
Faulkner  died  within  a  year  after  Dr.  Hamlin.  His 
visits  to  these  aged  friends  were  never  tinged  with  mel- 
ancholy. On  one  occasion  he  said  to  his  host,  "This  is 
a  time  to  be  glad;  let  this  visit  be  as  merry  as  a  wed- 
ding." As  the  circle  of  his  older  friends  grew  smaller  by 
death,  although  Dr.  Hamlin  felt  the  increasing  loneliness, 
there  Avas  no  deepening  sadness  in  his  thoughts  or  feel- 
ings. To  his  view,  those  who  had  gone  were  more  truly 
in  life  than  when  on  earth,  and  the  separation  from  them 
could  only  be  a  brief  one ;  death  had  no  terrors,  for  it  was 
the  entrance  upon  a  larger  life.  Moreover,  he  retained 
always  so  active  an  interest  in  affairs,  his  mind  and  sym- 
pathies were  so  youthful  in  spite  of  increasing  years,  that 
his  circle  of  friends  grew  larger  rather  than  smaller,  by 
constant  recruiting  from  among  younger  men  and  wom^ 
en.     He  possessed  the  Christian  art  of  "growing  old 


'The  Last  Birthday  2^ 

gracefully,"  and  exhibited  to  the  end  the  serenity  of  age 
without  its  dotage. 

The  last  year  of  Dr.  HamHn's  life  was  made  memor- 
able and  filled  with  the  radiance  of  friendship  and 
expressed  appreciation,  by  several  delightful  and  inspir- 
ing experiences.  These  rounded  out  the  final  chapter  of 
his  life  in  an  exceptional  manner.  One  of  these'  was  a 
luncheon  tendered  him  by  a  number  of  his  friends  on  his 
eighty-ninth  birthday,  at  the  Bellevue  Hotel,  Boston, 
(January  5,  1900).  The  following  account;of  the  lunch- 
eon, which  was  widely  noticed  in  the  Boston  papers,  is 
from  the  pen  of  Dr.  Hamlin's  warm  friend.  Rev.  Joseph 
Cook: 

This  distinguished  missionary  and  educator,  father  and 
first  President  of  Robert  College  on  the  Bosphorus,  be- 
gan his  ninetieth  year  on  Janu- 
Dr.  Hamlin's  ,  ^  _ 

Eighty-ninth  Birthday  ^'"^  ^th,  1900.  Some  twenty-five 
of  his  nearest  friends  in  Boston, 
chiefly  from  among  the  officers  of  the  American  Board 
and  the  Woman's  Board,  met  him  with  his  wife  and 
daughter,  Emma,  at  a  luncheon  at  the  new  Bellevue 
Hotel,  on  Beacon  Street,  Boston,  and  spent  three  hours 
in  a  manner  that  no  one  present  will  ever  willingly  for- 
get. 

The  Rev.  E.  B.  Webb  of  the  Prudential  Committee  of 


26  Cyrus  Hamlin 

the  American  Board  presided.  Brief  addresses  of  con- 
gratulation and  respect  were  made,  especially  emphasiz- 
ing Dr.  Hamlin's  great  work  in  Robert  College  and 
other  services  to  missions  both  at  home  and  abroad,  and 
particularly  his  recent  participation  in,  discussions  con- 
cerning the  Turkish  atrocities  in  the  massacre  of  Arme- 
nian Christians.  These  tributes  were  given  by  Joseph 
Cook,  Dr.  E.  G.  Porter,  Secretaries  Barton  and  Daniels, 
Editor  Strong  of  the  Missionary  Herald,  Miss  Child, 
Home  Secretary  of  the  Woman's  Board,  Mrs.  Joseph 
Cook  and  Miss  Borden.  Miss  Child  spoke  of  Dr.  Ham- 
lin as  an  invaluable  adviser  of  the  Woman's  Board  and 
an  encyclopedia  to  which  she  made  constant  reference  on 
every  topic  connected  with  Missions.  Miss  Borden  re- 
called the  fact  that  Dr.  Hamlin  was  the  first  canvasser 
for  the  subscriptions  for  the  now  flourishing  institution 
known  as  the  American  College  for  Girls  in  Constantino- 
ple. Mrs.  Cook  referred  to  three  "grand  old  men"  of 
whom  New  England  in  its  recent  history  can  boast — 
Neal  Dow,  Professor  Park,  and  Dr.  Hamlin.  The  latter 
had  made  us  all  who  are  in  the  middle  life  his  debtors  by 
proving  that  there  is,  of  necessity,  no  "dead  line  of  fifty," 
sixty,  seventy  or  even  ninety.  Mrs.  Cook  closed  by  ap- 
plying to  Dr.  Hamlin  the  efifective  lines  of  Emerson's 
"Terminus :" 

"As  the  bird  trims  her  to  the  gale 

I  trim  myself  to  the  storm  of  time. 

I  man  the  rudder,  reef  the  sail, 


The  Birthday  Addresses  2  J 

Obey  the  voice  at  eve,  obeyed  at  prime : 

Lowly  faithful,  banish  fear, 

Right  onward  drive  unharmed. 

The  port  well  worth  the  cruise  is  near, 

And  every  wave  is  charmed." 

Secretary  Daniels,  once  pastor  of  the  Payson  Church 
at  Portland,  alluded  to  Dr.  Hamlin's  services  as  practical- 
ly one  of  his  predecessors  in  that  position  who  would  un- 
doubtedly have  been  called  to  that  pulpit  had  he  not  pre- 
ferred the  work  of  a  foreign  missionary.  It  was  under 
the  profoundly  evangelical  and  spiritual  preaching  of 
Payson  that  Dr.  HamHn,  when  a  young  man,  entered 
upon  the  distinctly  Christian  life.  Dr.  Barton  spoke 
of  Robert  College,  under  Dr.  HamHn,  as  the  centre  from 
which  had  sprung  other  colleigesin  the  Turkish  Empire, 
and  influences  exerted  through  the  lives  of  the  great 
educator's  pupils  in  many  positions  of  trust  and  power, 
varied  usefulness  which  can  never  be  described  ade- 
quately in  any  biography.  Editor  Strong  described  the 
inspiring  effects  of  Dr.  Hamlin's  visits  to  the  Missionary 
Rooms  and  of  the  perpetual  youth  of  the  veteran  in  his 
zeal  for  the  higher  educational  work  in  the  foreign  field. 

Dr.  Porter  gave  due  recognition  to  Dr.  Hamlin's 
preaching  in  many  pulpits,  and  his  ubiquitous  influence 
in  support  of  the  work  of  the  American  Board  among  the 
New  England  Congregational  Churches.  In  Lexington 
Dr.  Hamlin  is  beloved,  not  only  for  his  great  record,  but 
as  a  foremost  local  citizen. 


28  Cyrus  Hamlin 

Mr.  Cook  spoke  of  Dr.  Hamlin's  career  in  retrospect 
and  prospect.  Robert  College  was  an  acorn.  The  next 
century  would  see  the  oak  and  Dr.  Hamlin's  memory 
would  always  be  green  under  its  branches.  Milton's 
famous  sonnet  on  the  Waldenses  might  be  slightly 
changed  so  as  to  represent  Dr.  Hamlin's  various  appeals 
for  justice  to  the  Armenian  Christians. 

"Avenge,  O  Lord,  Thy  slaughtered  saints, 
Whose  bones  lie  scattered  on  the  Turkish  mountains  cold; 
Even  them  who  kept  Thy  truth  so  pure  of  old, 
When  all  our  fathers  worshipped  stocks  and  stones, 
Forget  not :  in  Thy  book  record  their  groans, 
Who  were  Thy  sheep,  and  in  their  ancient  fold, 
Slain  by  the  bloody  Turk  and  Kurds,  who  rolled 
Mother  with  infant  down  the  Focks." 

To  emphasize  the  career  of  Dr.  Hamlin  in  prospect 
Mr.  Cook  read  a  hymn  entitled  "Reunion"  and  sug- 
gested by  words  of  Dr.  Hamlin:  "I  feel  drawn  by  influ- 
ences from  my  loved  ones  beyond  the  vale  to  meet  them 
there."  This  hymn  was  the  voice  of  a  veteran  and  hero- 
in Beulah  land : 

"They  call  me  who  have  gone; 

Before  the  Throne  they  stand ; 
I  see  through  rifts  of  heavenly  dawn 

Each  with  a  beckoning  hand." 

Dr.  Hamlin,  in  apparently  excellent  general  health 
and  spirits,  repelled  humorously  the  compliments  of  his 
friends  and  then  gravely  discussed  for  half  an  hour  cer- 


Centennial  at  Middlehury  2g 

tain  events  in  the  history  of  the  commencement  of  high- 
er education  in  mission  fields,  with  his  well-known  and 
inimitable  power  of  vivid  logical  narration,  every  para- 
graph and  almost  every  sentence  a  picture,  and  yet  mak- 
ing everywhere  prominent  the  line  of  cause  and  effect 
among  events.  The  lesson  of  the  speech  was  the  prop' 
osition  that  disaster  is  often  divinely  ordained  as  a  bless- 
ing in  disguise.  The  devotional  exercises  of  the  occa- 
sion, besides  the  blessing  invoked  by  Rev.  S.  L.  B, 
Speare,  formerly  Dr.  Hamlin's  coadjutor  in  important 
church  enterprises  in  Middlebury,  Vermont,  were  a  con- 
cluding prayer  by  Editor  Strong  and  the  singing,  by  the 
whole  company,  of  President  J.  E.  Rankin's  unmatched 
hymn,  known  around  the  world :  "God  be  with  you  till  we 
meet  again,"  to  which  Dr.  Hamlin  Hstened  with  evidently 
deep  emotion.     He  himself  pronounced  the  benediction. 

f^^  ^*  V^ 

Another  memorable  experience  was  the  visit  to  Middle- 
bury,  Vt.,  on  the  occasion  of  the  Centennial  of  the  Col- 

_    .  lege,  in  June  of  the  same  year,  igoo.    Fif- 

Visit  to  '^^  •'  J        y     y 

„ teen  years   had  passed  since  he  had  left 

Middlebury  ■'  ^ 

the  president's  chair,  and  in  fifteen  years 
much  can  be  forgotten;  but  it  was  made  very  evident 
during  this  visit  that  his  service  in  rescuing  the  col- 
lege from  the  destruction  which  threatened  it  in  1880 
was  remembered  and  appreciated.     His  appearance  was 


JO  Cyrus  Hamlin 

greeted  on  every  occasion  with  tremendous  applause, 
and  the  short  but  vigorous  address  which  he  gave  was 
received  with  extraordinary  demonstrations  of  enthusi- 
asm. It  was  characteristic  of  the  man  that  when  the 
procession  formed  to  march  from  the  college  buildings 
to  the  I  church  where  the  exercises  of  the  anniversary 
were  to  be  held,  Dr.  Hamlin  scorned  the  carriage  which 
had  been  provided  for  the  aged  ex-president  in  his  nine- 
tieth year,  and  marched  in  the  procession  with  firm  and 

vigorous  tread. 

^         Ji'         J* 

The  vigor  of  his  mental  powers  and  the  acuteness  of 
all  his  faculties  except  hearing,  remained  almost  unim- 
paired to  the  end.  He  wielded  the  same  incisive  pen  at 
eighty-nine  as  at  forty-nine ;  he  kept  up  his  interest  in 
missions,  in  national  politics  and  in  world-politics,  in 
education  and  in  philanthropy,  to  the  last  day  of  his  Hfe. 
During  the  Armenian  massacres  he  labored  by  his  voice, 
his  influence  and  his  pen  to  enHst  the  sympathies  of 
Americans  in  behalf  of  that  oppressed  and  persecuted 
people.  After  the  massacres  he  labored  for  the  orphans 
left  in  their  wake.  The  annual  meetings  of  the  Ameri- 
can Board  claimed  his  presence  whenever  possible.  At 
the  one  held  in  Providence  in  1899  he  received  an  ovation 


T^he  Eventide  JT 

which  surprised  him  as  greatly  as  it  touched  him  deeply. 
He  attended  the  Ecumenical  Conference  on  Foreign 
Missions  at  New  York  in  1900 — the  last  year  of  the  cen- 
tury and  of  his  life,  sitting  on  the  platform  with  his  ven- 
erable colleague,  Dr.  Wood,  and  meeting  with  mission- 
ary heroes  whom  he  had  heard  of  and  admired  for  years. 
This  occasion  was  his  valedictory  to  the  great  public  of 
the  missionary  interests. 

A  letter  written  to  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Wood  in  March, 
1900,  shortly  before  the  meeting  of  the  Conference, 
during  convalescence  from  a  very  serious  and  painful 
illness  which  had  brought  him  very  near  to  death,  gives 
so  clear  an  insight  into  his  innermost  feelings  at  this 
time  that  it  is  quoted  below  nearly  in  full.  Those  to 
whom  it  was  written,  as  well  as  the  writer,  have  passed 
"over  to  the  other  side  of  Jordan",  and  there  is  no  im- 
propriety in  thus  making  known  to  their  friends  these 
words  written  in  the  freedom  of  intimate  friendship. 

Lexington,  March  3,   1900. 
Dear  Brother  and  Sister  Wood: 

Since  I  wrote  you,  I  have  been  passing  through  deep 
waters ;  but  they  have  not  overflowed  me.  I  have  looked  earnest- 
ly over  to  the  other  side  of  Jordan,  and  with  more  of  comfort 
and  hope  than  I  could  have  expected  to  have.  I  am  now  better, 
though  confined  to  my  bed,  but  able  to  sit  up  a  little  once  or 
twice  a  day. 
It  may  be, — if  the  will  of  the  Lord  is  so,  it  will  be — that  I 


j2  Cyrus  Hamlin 

shall,  with  caution  and  prudence,  be  able  to  attend  the  Ecumenical 
Council,  in  April.  But  I  feel  now  that  my  work  is  done.  I  look 
back  upon  it  with  very  varied  feelings,  sometimes  with  wonder 
and  admiration  that  God  should  have  chosen  me  to  do  any  of  those 
things  that  He  did  by  my  hand :  and  often  with  grief  and  humili- 
ation that  my  part  of  the  work  was  so  imperfectly  and  unfaith- 
fully done.  But  if  we  are  the  true  disciples  of  Christ,  are  we  not 
freed  from  all  necessity  of  calling  ourselves  to  minute  account? 
I  love  rather  the  sentiment  "There  is  a  fountain  filled  with 
blood",  etc. 

But  I  wish  now,  dear  Brother  and  Sister  Wood,  to  bear  full 
witness  to  the  goodness  of  the  Master  to  his  unworthy  servant, 
in  giving  me  every  possible  comfort  in  this  time  of  weakness.  I 
have  often  said  that  my  disasters  generally  end  in  blessings. 
In  the  time  of  my  attack,  my  dear  wife  was  utterly  incapacitated 
by  lumbago  and  confined  to  her  room.  The  doctor  said  to  me, 
"You  must  now  have  a  trained  nurse,"  and  he  sent  me  an  ex- 
cellent one.  She  is  wholly  given  to  taking  care  of  me,  and  I  can 
say  to  her  "Go"  and  she  goeth,  and  she  does  whatever  I  require, 
kindly,  readily,  and  intelligently.  She  is  to  all  intents  and  pur- 
poses like  a  faithful  slave.  .  .  .  Moreover,  my  friends  have  been 
so  kind  to  me,  that  I  have  no  trouble  about  paying  the  expenses 
of  the  illness.  And  to  crown  all  my  blessings,  my  wife  is  getting 
rid  of  the  lumbago  and  can  come  into  my  room,  where  she  now 

is  writing  this I  am  gaining  a  little  strength  every 

day.  This  morning  I  insisted  on  being  allowed  to  walk  a  little 
without  a  cane,  which  I  accomplished  triumphantly  and  praised 
the  Lord ! 

Affectionately  your  brother  in  the  Lord,  and  your  associate 
in  His  service, 

Cyeus  Hamlin. 

Two  other  letters  written  in  1899  to  Dr.  Wood  are  in- 
teresting as  showing  how  Dr.  Hamlin  regarded  his  own 
extraordinary  career,  as  it  receded  into  the  background 
of  the  vanished  years.     They  are  the  full  and  free  out- 


Letters  to  Dr.   Wood  jj 

pouring  of  his  soul  and  give  a  wonderful  view  into  his 
inmost  heart.    From  the  first,  dated  July  23,  1899: 

I  do  not  see,  my  dear  Brother  Wood,  how  you  can  speak  of  me 
as  you  do  (referring  to  a  letter  from  Dr.  Wood).  It  seems 
to  me  extravagant,  and  yet  I  regard  you  as  absolutely  truthful 
and  honest;  but  in  this  you  are  in  error. 

I  know  perfectly  well  that  God's  wonderful  providence  in 
bringing  to  naught  the  craft  and  power  of  the  Jesuits  and  of 
France  and  Russia  in  the  matter  of  Robert  College  did  give  me  a 
sort  of  glamour,  an  honor  and  reputation  that  did  not  belong  to 
me.  I  have  earnestly  prayed  that  I  might  not  deceive  myself  and 
receive  the  honor  that  belongs  to  God. 

I  want  you  and  Mrs.  Wood  always  to  think  kindly  of  me  as 
a  true  Christian  friend  and  fellow-laborer  in  the  vineyard  without 
one  single  eminent  trait  except  perhaps  some  obstinacy,  which 
may  be  good  or  bad.  As  I  look  back  upon  my  work  I  see  so 
many  mistakes,  errors,  shortcomings,  that  I  wonder  how  the  Lord 
endured  me  and  even  used  me  in  his  service.  In  one  sense  I 
enjoy  this  season  which  I  have  for  repentance,  confession,  pardon, 
for  I  do  hope  the  Lord  has  blotted  out  my  sins.  "There  is  a 
fountain  filled  with  blood." 

Well,  let  us  go  on  praying  for  each  other,  and  we  will  soon 
sing,  if  we  never  sang  before, 

"Hallelujah  to  the  Lamb 
Who  purchased  our  pardon." 

From  the  second  of  these  letters,  dated  December  14, 
1899: 

My  dear  Brother  Wood: 

That  letter  of  eight  pages!  It  did  my  soul  good,  and 
it  filled  me  with  despair  of  ever  suitably  answering  it.  It  was  in 
a  clear,  bold  hand,  and  as  to  penmanship  it  is  the  best  letter  you 
ever  wrote  to  me.    You  have  twice  the  mind  and  body  that  I  have. 


j/f  Cyrus  Hamlin 


It  is  a  good  Christian  letter  and  I  thank  you  and  love  you  for  it. 
I  have  been  an  active  man  more  than  a  useful  man. 


You  and  I,  Brother  Wood,  fare  differently  in  the  great  public 
world.  You  in  your  exceeding  modesty  retire  from  public  view 
to  a  certain  extent.  Your  work  is  more  spiritual.  I  put  up  a 
steam  engine  or  make  a  rat-trap,  or  do  scores  of  material  things. 
People  read  and  say,  "Now  there's  a  feller  knows  how  to  do  some- 
thing. I  like  a  missionary  who  can  make  a  rat-trap  and  set  the 
lazy  fellows  to  work."  So  I  get  at  least  distinction  from  the  com- 
monest mechanical  work,  and  you,  doing  a  higher  ami  more 
blessed  one,  are  known  only  to  the  Master !  How  we  shall 
change  places  at  the  Judgment  seat !  My  work  that  makes  noise 
here  will  have  no  place  there.  Only  if  I  have  done  anything  for 
Christ's  little  ones.  He  will  remember  it,  although  I  shall  blush 
to  have  Him.  I  am  thinking  a  great  deal  of  the  transition  which 
must  be  near.  When  humbled  with  thoughts  of  being  unfit  for  a 
holy  heaven  I  find  relief  in  the  full  surrender. 


In  a  letter  to  another  friend  about  the  same  time,  re- 
ferring to  the  same  subject — "the  transition  which  must 
be  near" — he  wrote :  "Upon  the  single  plank  of  Christ's 
righteousness  I  am  ready  to  launch  upon  the  ocean  of 
eternity." 

Reading  these  passages,  we  feel  that  we  are  in  the 
presence  of  one  of  God's  elect  saints,  with  faith  as  sim- 
ple and  true  as  a  child's,  with  heart  as  pure  and  noble 
as  ever  throbbed  in  the  breast  of  a  knight  of  the  cross ; 
humble,  esteeming  lightly  the  valiant  service  of  his  own 
long  and  arduous  life,  but  trusting  implicitly  the  Saviour 


The  Crown  of  Rejoicing  j^ 

to  whose  cause  he  had  always  been  true.  He  might  well 
have  said  with  St.  Paul,  "I  have  finished  the  fight,  I 
have  kept  the  faith ;  henceforth  there  is  laid  up  for  me 
a  crown  of  rejoicing  which  the  Lord  shall  give  me  in  the 
day  of  His  appearing." 


Zhe  last  Da^s 
3E)eatb 

jfuneral  Service 
an^  H^^re06e0 


THE  LAST  DAYS 

On  Tuesday,  August  7,  1900,  Dr.  Hamlin  attended  a 
family  reunion  at  the  summer  home  of  his  grandson, 
Dr.  George  H.  Washburn,  at  Manchester-by-the-sea, 
There  were  present  twenty  members  of  four  generations 
of  the  Hamlin  and  Washburn  families.  Among  them 
were  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Hamlin,  and  Mrs,  E.  H.  (Philander) 
Washburn,  of  the  first  generation.  The  second  was  rep- 
resented by  the  eldest  daughter,  Henrietta  (Mrs.  George 
Washburn),  and  her  husband.  Rev.  George  Washburn, 
D.D.,  LL.D.,  of  Constantinople,  President  of  Robert 
College  :  and  by  Dr  Hamhn's  two  sons,  Alfred  D.  F.  and 
Christopher  R.,  with  their  wives.  Of  the  third  generation 
were  the  host  and  hostess.  Dr.  and  Mrs.  George  H. 
Washburn,  and  two  of  Professor  Hamlin's  children, 
Talbot  and  Louise.  Dr.  W^ashburn's  four  children — 
Loraine,  George  H.  Jr.,  Arthur  and  Alfred  H.,  were  of 
the  fourth  generation.  Besides  these  were  Rev.  Dr. 
George    Washburn's    sister    Mrs.    Brainerd,    and    Mrs. 


^O  Cyrus  Ha?nlin 

George  H.  Washburn's  mother,  Mrs.  Hoyt.  The  gath- 
ering- was  a  joyful  and  genial  one,  and  except  for  a  slight 
and  passing  indisposition.  Dr.  Hamlin  appeared  to  be 
in  remarkable  health  and  spirits. 

On  the  next  day,  August  8,  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Hamlin 
took  train  for  Portland,  Me.,  to  take  part  in  the  "Old 
Home  Day"  celebration  there,  as  guests  of  their  nephew 
Cyrus  H.  Farley.  In  the  evening  they  attended  the 
"Old  Home"'  reunion  at  the  Second  Parish  Church — the 
same  church,  though  not  the  same  building,  where  Dr. 
Hamlin  had  been  ordained  sixty-three  years  before  to 
the  work  of  Christian  missions.  He  was  the  last  speaker 
at  the  reunion,  from  which  he  returned  with  his  wife  and 
nephew  to  the  latter's  house.  Ascending  the  stairs  on  ar- 
riving there,  he  complained  of  a  severe  pain :  and  as  it 
did  not  yield  as  usual  to  the  customary  remedy,  the  doc- 
tor was  sent  for.  But  medical  aid  was  powerless  to 
stay  the  summons  that  had  come ;  and  within  a  half- 
hour  his  spirit  had  taken  its  flight  from  its  mortal  tene- 
ment of  nearly  ninety  years.  He  had  come  home  to  his 
own  state,  to  his  own  church,  to  the  house  of  his  sister's 
son ;  and  thence  he  had  gone  to  his  heavenly  home,  with 
but  a  brief  struggle  with  mortal  pain.  As  if  to  complete 
the  fitness  of  these  surroundings  and  circumstances  of 


T^he  Passing   Over  41 

his  departure,  a  chair  which  his  eldest  son  had  brought 
from  the  old  home  in  Waterford,  and  left  for  safe  keep- 
ing at  Mr.  Farley's — one  of  the  original  chairs  of 
Dr.  Hamlin's  childhood  days,  belonging  to  his  mother 
— was  by  the  bedside  in  the  guest-room,  and  in  his 
restlessness  he  occupied  that  chair  for  a  few  minutes  be- 
fore the  final  weakness  overtook  him.  From  it  he  was 
helped  into  the  bed  and  in  a  few  minutes  "was  not,  for 
God  took  him." 

The  cause  of  his  death  was  heart  failure  due  to  old 
age.  There  had  been  no  visible  symptom  of  unusual 
weakness,  nor  warning  of  approaching  dissolution,  al- 
though he  had  for  years  been  aware  that  to  a  man  of 
his  age  death  might  come  at  any  moment  from  the  sud- 
den cessation  of  the  heart's  action.  For  this  end  he  was 
wholly  prepared,  and  had,  indeed,  often  expressed  a 
wish  that  it  might  come  in  this  way,  and  thus  spare  him 
and  his  dear  ones  the  misery  of  gradual  dissolution  and 
mental  helplessness.  He  did  not  pray  for  death,  for  he 
was  too  full  of  life,  and  too  happy  in  living,  to  long  for 
release ;  but  he  desired  to  live  fully  up  to  the  very  mo- 
ment of  the  summons,  and  this  wish  God  granted  him 
to  realize.  Two  severe  and  painful  illnesses  during  the 
last  twoi  years  of  his  life  had  warned  him  that  the  sum- 


/f.2  Cyrus  Ha7nlin 

mons  could  not  be  very  long  delayed,  while  the  recov- 
ery from  them,  and  the  fortitude  with  which  he  endured 
them,  at  the  same  time  gave  proof  of  the  wonderful  vig- 
or and  vitality  of  his  physical  constitution.  His  age  at 
death  was  eighty-nine  years,  seven  months  and  three 
days. 

Some  years  before  he  had  prepared  full  directions  for 
his  funeral  and  these  were  carried  out  as  literally  as  was 

possible.  The  funeral  was  held  at  Lex- 
The  Last  Rites 

ington,  at  the  Hancock  Congregation- 
al church,  of  which  he  had  been  an  active  and  devoted 
member  for  fifteen  years.  In  accordance  with  his  ex- 
press instructions  the  singing  at  the  service  was  entirely 
congregational,  led  by  the  organ  played  by  Miss  Grace 
French.  The  services  were  conducted  by  Rev.  C.  F. 
Carter,  pastor  of  the  Hancock  church,  assisted  by  Rev. 
H.  H.  Hamilton  of  Lexington,  a  warm  friend  of  Dr. 
Hamlin.  They  were  of  the  simplest  description,  com- 
prising an  opening  prayer  by  Mr.  Carter,  the  singing  of 
the  hymns  "Majestic  sweetness  sits  enthroned  upon  the 
Saviour's  brow"  and  "Guide  me,  O  thou  Great  Jeho- 
vah," both  of  them  special  favorites  of  Dr.  Hamlin, 
the  reading  of  Scripture  passages  by  Dr.  Hamilton,  and 
a  number  of  addresses  by  personal  friends.    Those  who 


;iHBr    ■>•>»: 

■ 

_iiWl^^  ' 

^3 

^Hkxw^-^  ) 

-» S  -^f^JiflK 

rf_ 

President  of  Robert  College,  1872 


'The  Last  Rites  /fj 

spoke  were  the  Rev.  James  L.  Barton,  D.D.,  Foreign 
Secretary  of  the  American  Board,  who  had  graduated 
at  Middlebur)^  under  Dr.  Hamh'n's  presidency ;  the  Rev. 
S.  L.  B.  Speare  of  Boston,  Dr.  Hamlin's  pastor  at 
Middlebury,  Mr.  Arakelyan  of  Boston,  an  Armeni- 
an by  birth,  and  Rev.  Prof.  A.  A.  Melcon  of  Euphrates 
College,  also  an  Armenian.  Both  of  these  gentlemen 
spoke  in  English,  paying  touching  tributes  to  the 
father  in  Christ  whom  they  had  lost.  The  Rev.  A.  H. 
Plumb  of  Roxbury  followed  with  an  eloquent  and 
touching  prayer,  and  the  benediction  was  pronounced 
by  Mr.  Carter. 

The  remains  were  then  taken  to  the  Hamlin  home  on 
Bloomfield  Street,  where,  in  accordance  with  Oriental 
custom  as  expressed  in  Dr.  Hamlin's  instructions,  a 
brief  service  of  prayer  in  Armenian  was  held  in  the 
open  air.  The  Rev.  Professor  A.  A.  Melcon  of  Harpoot, 
Turkey,  offered  a  prayer  in  Armenian,  full  of  tender 
feeling,  and  the  casket  was  then  borne  to  the  cemetery 
near  by.  From  the  hearse  to  the  open  grave  it  was 
carried  on  the  shoulders  of  the  Armenian  pall-bearers. 
Those  who  rendered  this  last  service  of  grateful  af- 
fection to  the  friend  of  their  oppressed  race  were 
Messrs.  J.  J.  Arakelyan,  Hagop  Bogigian,  M.  A.  Gule- 


^^  Cyrus  Hamlin 

sian,  A.  A.  Melcon,  O.  Gaidzakian,  C.  S.  Galemkarian, 
K.  M.  Giragosian,  T.  Taminosian,  Bedros  Arakelyan. 
Thus  earth '  was  laid  to  earth  and  dust  returned  to 
dust.  Rev.  Mr.  Carter  pronounced  the  final  bene- 
diction. 


THE  FUNERAL  ADDRESSES 

The  address  by  Dr.  Barton  at  the  funeral  exercises  be- 
gan with  a  feeling  reference  to  his  own  personal  rela- 
tions with  Dr.  Hamlin,  both  as  a  student  and  as  a  friend, 
and  then  proceeded  in  these  words : 

I  cannot  but  feel  that  we  are  here  to-day  tO'  celebrate 

a  triumph  rather  than  a  death.     We  commemorate  the 

.TV     ■„    X     ,     Ajj  consummation  of  a  life  that  was 

Dr.   Barton's  Address 

in  no  small  measure  a  continuous 

conflict,  but  which  to-day  is  crowned  with  victory. 
There  could  have  been  no  more  fitting  conclusion  to 
the  nearly  four  score  and  ten  years  of  service,  war- 
fare and  faith.  We  are  glad  there  were  no  inter^'^en- 
ing  days  and  weeks  of  weakness  and  suflfering.  His  last 
year  on  earth  was  an  active  one.  The  last  weeks  were 
made  glad  by  family  reunions  and  the  last  day  was  the 
busiest  of  them  all  among  his  old  friends  and  in  the 
parish  where  he  first  began  his  ministry  as  a  young  man 
two  generations  ago.  It  seems  as  if  that  day  and  its  set- 
ting fittingly  crowned  the  year  and  life ;  and  the  Lord, 
seeing  that  it  was  well  finished,  called  him  home. 

It  has  been  my  high  privilege  to  meet  many  of  the 


/^(^  Cyrus  Hamlin 

early  pupils  of  Dr.  Hamlin  in  different  parts  of  Turkey, 
and  I  never  met  one  who  did  not  appear  to  have  caught 
something  of  the  energy  and  masterful  purpose  of  his 
teacher.  I  have  seen  Dr.  HamHn's  picture  hanging  soli- 
tary and  alone  upon  the  walls  of  loving  disciples  in  the 
mountains  of  wild  Koordistan,  and  the  voice  was  always  a 
little  more  tender  when  the  teacher  and  spiritual  father 
of  Bebek  Seminary  and  Robert  College  was  the  theme 
of  conversation.  His  pupils  all  loved  him  and  have  been 
trying  these  many  years  to  live  as  they  think  he  would 
have  them  live,  strong  in  the  same  faith  and  earnest  in 
the  same  service.  There  will  be  mourning  among  the 
mountains  of  Asia  Minor,  in  Koordistan,  as  well  as  along 
the  beautiful  Bosphorus,  when  it  is  learned  that  the  be- 
loved teacher  has  gone. 

Personally  I  feel  as  if  I  had  lost  a  spiritual  father.  His 
first  year  as  President  of  Middlebury  College  was  my 
last  year  there  as  a  student,  and  through  his  teachings  I 
received  my  first  impulse  to  enter  the  foreign  missionary 
service.  When  I  was  ordained  to  that  service  he  gave 
me  the  right  hand  of  fellowship  and  welcome,  and  I  al- 
most felt  myself  sent  out  to  the  work  he  had  laid  down  in 
Turkey.  That  relationship  entered  into  in  1880  has  never 
been  severed  or  broken  in  upon,  and  I  count  myself  most 
favored  that  T  have  had  the  high  privilege  of  calling  my- 
self a  fellow  pupil  of  his,  along  with  that  larger  company 
of  men  from  many  nations  who  have  sat  at  his  feet. 

We  cannot  but  rejoice  to-day  in  the  triumphant  life  he 
lived,  and  in  the  victory  of  his  translation  from  service 
here  to  the  welcome  that  awaited  him.  It  seems  almost 
as  if  we  can  catch  the  echo  of  the  greeting  of  his  Lord, — 

"You  have  fought  a  good  fight;    you  have  finished 


Rev.   Mr.   Spe are's  Address  ^j 

your  course ;  you  have  kept  the  faith.  Here  is  the 
crown  of  righteousness  which  the  Lord,  the  righteous 
Judge  now  gives  you,  and  which  is  yours  forever  and  for- 
ever." 

^*  *2^  «^^ 

The  Rev.  S.  Lewis  B.  Speare,  Dr.  Hamhn's  pastor 
first  at  Bangor  in  1878- 1880,  and  then  at  Middlebury,  and 
through  all  the  after  years  one  of  his  warmest  and  most 
intimate  friends,  spoke  with  emotion  of  Dr.  Hamlin  as 
a  friend,  as  a  parishioner  and  as  a  Christian.  His  ad- 
dress is  here  given  in  full. 

Within  the  last  few  months  a  son  of  Dwight  L.  Moody 

made  an  address  at  the  funeral  of  his  distinguished  and 

lamented  father.     I  think  I  now  know  how  he  then  felt. 

„        ,^     „  ,      During   the   last   two   days    deep   in 

Rev.   Mr.  Speare's  °  ,-         ^ 

my    heart    and   upon   my   hps    have 

been  the  words,  "My  father,  my  fa- 
ther; the  chariot  of  Israel  and  the  horsemen  thereof." 
But  I  cannot  refuse  to  speak  in  affectionate  appreciation 
of  him  whose  going  home  leaves  our  paths  lonely,  how- 
ever sure  our  faith  that  he  is  in  the  land  of  unfading 
light.  I  would  speak  first  of  Dr.  Hamlin  as  a  friend. 
He  had  a  mind  of  broadest  vision  and  far-reaching  ken. 
He  could  and  did  plan  campaigns  before  which  mountains 
of  difificulty  were  leveled.  He  was  a  master  of  strategic 
methods  and  resources.  Almost  no  situation,  however 
unexpected,  could  surprise  or  baffle  him ;  he  could  gain 
his  end  and  firmly  establish  his  undertaking  without  ever 
losing  the  motives,  ideas,  or  spirit  of  the  Christian  mis- 
sionary.   But  Dr.  Hamhn  had  more  than  an  intellect  to 


^S  Cyrus  Hamlin 

plan  and  achieve.  He  had  a  heart  which  clung  to  his 
friends —  and  they  were  legion — with  a  fervor  of  devo- 
tion and  hunger  to  serve  like  David  and  Jonathan. 
Reminiscences  may  best  illustrate  this  excellence,  always 
so  beautiful  and  welcome. 

About  seventy  years  ago,  a  boy  in  Waterford,  Me., 
Samuel  Moody  Haskins,  said  to  his  father:  "Cyrus  Ham- 
Hn  has  gone  away  to  school :  he  is  going  to  college  to  be 
a  minister.  I  would  like  to  go  to  college  and  be  a  min- 
ister." The  father  replied :  "I  have  five  sons  and  five 
daughters;  how  can  I  send  you  to  college?"  But  the 
example  of  the  boy-friend  had  not  ceased  its  influence 
until,  within  a  year,  Samuel  Moody  Haskins  finished  his 
only  pastorate  of  sixty-two  years  as  rector  of  St.  Mark's, 
Brooklyn  N.  Y.,  when  the  Master  called  him  to  his  re- 
ward. 

A  few  months  before  that  going  home,  Mr.  Hamlin 
made  a  tour  of  afifection  among  several  life-long  friends 
in  New  York,  Brooklyn  and  New  Jersey.  He  said  to 
them  that  it  would  be  his  last  visit,  but  he  wished  it  to 
be  "as  merry  as  a  wedding."  At  Dr.  Haskins'  he  found 
also  three  sisters  living  with  their  brother,  his  own  im- 
mediate family  all  translated.  All  the  five  had  remi- 
niscences of  nearly  or  quite  fourscore  years ;  and,  after  a 
loving  fellowship  of  hours,  they  sealed  their  mutual  love 
in  a  sacramental  service. 

You  will  kindly  allow  me  to  mention  an  experience  of 
my  own.  Last  autumn,  learning  of  his  serious  illness,  I 
called  at  his  home  there,  hardly  expecting  that  I  could 
see  him.  To  my  joy  he  answered  the  bell,  and  as  he  saw 
me  his  eyes  brimmed  with  tears.  These  may  be  taken 
as  typical  instances  of  all  his  long  life. 


Rev.   Mr.   Speares  Address  4g 

I  am  glad,  also,  to  speak  of  Dr.  Hamlin  as  a  parishion- 
er. It  was  my  privilege  to  know  him  in  that  relation 
for  five  years,  and  he  was  an  ideal  parishioner.  The 
cares  of  his  college  presidency  were  numerous  and  press- 
ing. He  was  at  a  time  of  life  when  many  college  in- 
structors are  released  from  duty.  But  almost  no  service 
of  the  church,  on  the  Sabbath  or  during  the  week,  was 
without  his  presence  and  influential  participation.  His 
helpfulness  did  not  cease  with  public  service.  For  exam- 
ple, when  sickness  and  death  came  to  any  home,  he 
was  a  sympathizer  and  a  friend.  When  practicable,  he 
called  and  brought  the  consolations  of  loving  counsel 
and  prayer.  I  recall  at  this  moment  his  Christlike  min- 
istration to  the  mother  of  one  of  the  missionaries,  the 
wife  of  Rev.  Mr.  Riggs,  who  sailed  a  few  days  since  from 
Boston.  And,  in  our  personal  relations,  he  was  all  that 
a  wise  father  could  have  been  in  counsels  and  unwaver- 
ing loyalty. 

In  his  administration  of  Middlebury  college,  Dr  Ham- 
lin had  a  success  which  was  a  fitting  climax  to  his  con- 
spicuous and  phenomenal  work  as  an  educator.  He 
found  a  mere  handful  of  students,  buildings  few  and 
needing  repair,  and  finances  embarrassed.  He  soon 
commanded  means  to  reconstruct  buildings.  He  was 
his  own  architect  and  superintendent  of  workmen;  he 
planted  trees  and  watered  them  with  his  own  hands  un- 
der summer  skies ;  he  repaired  chemical  and  philosophi- 
cal apparatus;  equipped  a  working  laboratory;  gave 
the  library  a  new  and  ample  apartment  v^ath  a  card  cat- 
alogue and  reading  room,  open  daily  instead  of  once  a 
week.  In  short,  he  so  brought  new  life  and  methods  that 
the  alumni  had  courage  to  continue  help.    Some  of  them 


CQ  Cyrus  Hamlin 

have;  since  left  large  legacies,  and  at  the  centennial  cele- 
bration, a  few  weeks  since,  every  returning  alumnus  re- 
joiced in  abundant  tokens  of  present  prosperity  and  an 
assured  future.  At  the  alumni  dinner,  the  president  of 
the  board  of  trustees  gave  emphatic  testimony  to  the 
agency  which  began  the  upward  turn  in  the  life  of  their 
alma  mater. 

But  I  have  my  highest  joy  in  speaking  of  Mr.  Hamlin 
as  a  Christian.  In  recounting  to  me  his  experience  at  the 
Middlebury  centennial,  after  gratefully  mentioning  the 
personal  welcome  by  students,  officers  and  citizens  and 
the  tokens  of  present  hfe  and  future  growth  of  the  col- 
lege, he  spoke  tenderly  and  with  emphasis  of  the  joy 
and  comfort  which  he  had  from  an  interview  with  a  for- 
mer instructor.  Their  theme  was  the  Atonement.  To 
the  unwavering  assurance  of  the  other  that  all  his  sins 
were  laid  upon  the  Lamb  slain  from  the  foundation  of 
the  world  and  that  he  had  no  more  concern  with  them, 
he,  whose  life  had  ever  been  strenuous  and  aggressive, 
gave  the  loving,  heartfelt,  glad  assent  of  a  child. 

Equally  pertinent  is  a  reminiscence  of  Dr.  Norman 
McLeod,  given  at  our  interview  last  Sabbath  afternoon 
— the  last  of  a  long  and  memorable  series.  He  always 
had  something  new  whenever  we  met.  In  1856  he  was  in 
Glasgow  and  had  spoken  to  a  large  audience  upon  the 
situation  in  Turkey,  followed  by  Dr.  McLeod  with  words 
of  warm  appreciation.  But  what  he  most  dwelt  upon 
was  a  call  from  the  Scottish  clergyman,  when  he  was 
ill  at  a  private  residence,  in  the  early  morning  and  hurry- 
ing to  keep  an  engagement,  asking  that  he  might  com- 
mend the  beloved  missionary  to  the  care  of  his  Master. 
And  last  Sabbath  afternoon,  his  last  upon  earth,  when 


Mr.   Arakelyari  s  Address  ^I 

it  was  my  privilege  to  be  with  him  and  lead  in  prayer  at 
the  family  altar,  kneeling  close  to  his  bowed  head,  he  re- 
sponded with  an  "amen"  tender  and  fervent,^ — unmistak- 
able evidence  that  the  Throne  of  Grace  had  ever  been 
the  joy  and  strength  of  his  life. 

Were  there  time,  I  would  be  glad  to  speak  of  the 
ideal  ordering  of  Providence  for  our  beloved  friend.  He 
was  at  the  great  Ecumenical  Conference  in  New  York 
and  witnessed  that  thrilling  revelation  of  what  is  now  the 
world-wide  appreciation  of  that  work  to  which  he  gave 
the  endeavors  of  his  youth  and  the  devotion  of  mature 
years.  Those  assembled  could  see  him,  the  typical  mis- 
sionary pioneer.  He  was  at  the  college  he  had  done  so 
much  to  save,  in  its  centennial  celebration,  welcomed  with 
cyclones  of  applause  from  grateful  students  and  every 
token  of  appreciation  from  others ;  and  then,  in  most 
beautiful  coronation,  he  goes  down  to  Portland,  the  city 
of  his  youthful  consecration  to  his  adored  Saviour  and 
Lord,  shares  in  commemorative  services  in  the  church 
where  he  joined  his  Master's  visible  body,  returns  to  the 
home  of  a  beloved  relative,  and  in  a  few  moments,  he 
received  the  glorious  translation  and  glad  welcome  in 
waiting  for  all  who  die  in  the  Lord. 

^^  f^^  *^^ 

Mr.  J.  J.  Arakelyan  of  Boston,  the  well-known  printer 
and  a  leader  among  his  fellow-citizens  of  Armenian  birth 
in  Boston,  spoke  feelingly  in  their  behalf  of  the  sense 
of  loss  which  had  come  to  all  Armenians  in  the  death  of 
their  faithful  and  beloved  friend.  He  quoted,  as  a  text 
for  his  remarks,  the  37th  verse  of  the  37th  Psalm : 


^2  Cyrus  Hamlin 

"Mark  the  perfect  man  and  behold  the  upright:  for  the  end 
of  that  man  is  peace." 

Mr,  Arakelyan  continued: 

A  review  of  the  life  of  our  departed  friend  discloses  a 

life   of  thrilling  activity,  persistent   engagements  along 

,^      .     ,    ,       ,        one  line  of  warfare,  invariably  ending 
Mr.  Arakelyan's  '  -'  ° 

.  , ,  in  peaceful,  victorious   achievements. 

Address  ^  ' 

We  find  him  to-day  lying  before  us 
in  peace  at  the  close  of  a  well-spent  earthly  life. 

Dr.  Hamlin  was,  without  qualification,  a  true  friend  of 
the  Armenians.  My  first  recollection  of  this  great  and 
good  man  was  that,  when  merely  a  lad,  in  the  city  of 
Arabkir  where  I  was  born,  I  heard  groups  of  men  and 
women  talking  about  him,  saying  that  "Dr.  Hamlin 
was  building  the  church,"  then  in  process  of  erection  in 
that  city ;  and  that  "other  churches  were  being  erected 
by  his  generous  gifts  throughout  the  Turkish  empire." 
You  know  the  story  of  his  business  achievements  at 
the  time  of  the  Crimean  War,  his  main  object  then  being 
to  create  work  for  the  Armenian  young  men  who  were 
boycotted  for  their  acceptance  of  evangelical  truths. 
He  accumulated  from  the  bread-making  business  and 
other  like  enterprises  something  like  $25,000  which,  in- 
stead of  investing  for  his  own  future  personal  use,  he 
devoted  to  building  up  Protestant  churches  throughout 
the  Turkish  Empire.  Thus  he  "being  rich,  for  our  sakes 
he  became  poor." 

Dr.  Hamlin  was  a  quick,  vigorous  and  effective  de- 
fender of  the  Armenian  name  and  cause.  Thus  in  the 
case  of  Mr.  F.  Hopkinson  Smith,  who  upon  his  ireturn 
from  his  visit  to  Constantinople,  by  pen  and  speech 
spoke  unfavorably  of  the  Armenians,  but  approvingly  of 


Professor  Me  Icon's  Address  5J 

the  Sultan,  exonerating  the  great  assassin ;  Dr.  HamHn, 
being  thoroughly  acquainted  with  the  situation,  correct- 
ed Mr.  Smith  and  pointed  out  very  clearly  the  errors  of 
his  ways.  He  maintained  his  interest  in  us  to  the  last. 
To  this  day  both  Dr.  Hamlin  and  Mrs.  HamHn  have 
their  especial  orphans  in  Armenia,  whose  support  they 
assume. 

In  my  judgment,  we  can  best  show  our  appreciation 
of  Dr.  Hamlin's  life-long  service  and  honor  him,  by  con- 
ducting ourselves  in  such  a  way  that  we  can  live  down 
all  the  unfavorable  criticisms  that  might  be  made  or  are 
being  made  of  us.  We  certainly  shall  miss  him  and  his 
counsels,  and  will  hold  his  name  in  sweet  remembrance 
as  time  goes  on. 

t£^  t^^  t^^ 

The  address  of  Professor  Melcon  which  follows,  de- 
rived special  interest  from  the  fact  that  the  speaker  was 
one  of  Dr.  Hamlin's  pupils  in  the  old  seminary  at  Bebek, 
and  that  as  a  professor  for  twenty  years  in  Euphrates 
College  at  Harpoot,  he  represented  the  fruitage  of  Dr. 
Hamlin's  earlier  educational  work. 

A  sense  of  gratitude  iti  is  which  impels  me  to  speak  a 

few  words  in  the  name  of  those  who  as  individuals  and  as 

members  of  the  Evangelical  Arme- 

Professor  Melcon's       .  ,        .  ,       .  , 

man   churches,  and   of   a  persecuted 

nation,  owe  so  much  to  Dr.  Hamlin. 

He  is  known  as  the  founder  and  promoter  of  modern 

education    among  the    Evangelical   Armenians   and   in 


^^  Cyrus  Hamlin 

Turkey  in  general.  When  he  commenced  the  Bebek 
Seminary,  there  were  almost  no  schools  in  Turkey  in 
the  modern  sense  of  the  word.  It  served  as  a  model  and 
gave  impulse  for  the  opening  of  others.  He  tried  to 
give  the  most  thorough  education  possible  in  those  days 
and  under  the  then  existing  circumstances,  overcoming 
one  by  one  the  obstacles  thrown  in  his  way  by  the  ene- 
mies of  the  Evangelical  movement  among  the  Ar- 
menians. 

Dr.  Hamlin  raised  up  a  band  of  able  preachers,  pastors 
and  teachers,  who  subsequently  became  and  some  of 
them  still  are  to-day,  a  blessing  to  the  Evangelical 
churches  throughout  the  whole  of  Turkey.  Churches 
and  schools  in  Constantinople,  Broosa,  Nicomedia,  Caes- 
area,  Diarbekir,  Harpoot,  Bitlis,  Aintab  and  many  other 
places  had  for  their  first  pastors  and  teachers  men  edu- 
cated by  Dr.  HamUn.  He  inspired  them  with  his  faith, 
energy,  independence  and  perseverance.  Through  his 
pupils  he  was  known  all  over  Turkey  as  "The  Teacher." 

Men  educated  partly  in  his  seminary  afterwards 
became  physicians,  editors,  authors,  government  of- 
ficials and  one  was  raised  even  to  the  rank  of  a  pasha. 
A  few  years  ago  a  naval  officer  of  high  rank  visited 
Euphrates  College.  He  was  a  Turk.  In  the  course 
of  his  conversation  he  said  he  had  known  Dr.  Hamlin, 
to  whose  inspiration  and  suggestions  he  owed  his 
present  rank. 

I  have  met  common  people  in  the  remotest  parts  of 
Armenia,  who  as  laborers  in  Constantinople  having  come 
into  contact  with  Dr.  Hamlin,  spoke  of  his  uprightness, 
sense,  energy  and  perseverance  with  the  highest  admi- 
ration. And  many  men  now  in  high  rank  in  society  owe 


Professor  Me  Icon  s  Address  j'j' 

education,  rank  and  social  position  to  Dr.  Hamlin's  in- 
spiration, suggestions  and  personal  lielp. 

Dr.  Hamlin  not  only  supplied  many  Protestant  church- 
es and  schools  with  preachers,  pastors  and  teachers,  but 
he  provided  several  congregations  with  money  to  build 
their  churches. 

Robert  College  is  a  permanent  monument,  on  the 
heights  of  the  Bosphorus,  to  the  energy,  faith  and  perse- 
verance which  overcame  all  the  obstacles  put  in  his  path 
by  the  Turkish  Government  and  the  machinations  of  the 
Russian  diplomacy  ;  a  living  witness  of  what  he  has  done 
not  only  for  the  Armenians  but  also  for  the  people  of 
every  nation  and  creed  in  the  Turkish  Empire.  It  shows 
that  he  had  a  broad  mind  to  think  and  a  wide  heart  to 
feel  for  all  at  the  same  time.  And  in  the  later  part  of  his 
life,  when  he  was  in  this  country,  did  he  cease  to  think 
and  feel  for  his  former  field  of  labor?  Never.  Most  es- 
pecially since  the  reign  of  terror  among  the  poor  and 
forsaken  Armenians,  whenever  and  wherever  a  chance 
offered  itself  to  him,  he  spoke  or  wrote  in  behalf  of  the 
just  cause  of  the  persecuted. 

Having  thought  and  felt  and  labored  and  prayed  for 
more  than  half  a  century  for  the  same  work  and  people, 
was  it  possible  for  a  man  of  his  spirit  and  character  to 
forget  it  at  his  death?  What  do  his  funeral  arrange- 
ments show?  And  does  not  the  communion  of  saints 
continue  after  death? 

Now  when  we  are  about  to  commit  the  body  of  our  be- 
loved teacher  and  benefactor  to  the  mother  earth,  paying 
the  last  honors  to  his  earthly  form,  my  earnest  desire 
and  prayer  is — and  I  ask  every  one  of  you  to  join  me  in 
it — that  it  may  please  God  to  use  him  as  a  seed  to  raise 


^6  Cyrus  Hamlin 

many  missionaries  of  his  type.  The  memory  of  men  of 
Dr.  HamHn's  type  will  never  die.  He  will  live  in  the 
grateful  hearts  of  his  spiritual  children  and  grandchil- 
dren and  in  the  v^ork  he  has  done,  through  eternity. 

4^*  <t9^  t^^ 

Memorial  Service  at  Robert  College 
-^ 

A  special  memorial  service  was  held  at  Robert  College 
on  the  fourth  of  November,  1900.  The  exercises  were 
held  in  the  Chapel  Hall,  and  were  largely  attended,  not 
only  by  the  students  and  faculty  of  the  College,  but  by 
American  and  English  residents  of  Constantinople,  in- 
cluding many  of  Dr.  Hamlin's  personal  friends  of 
thirty  and  forty  years  ago.  The  chief  addresses  were 
delivered  by  the  late  Rev.  A.  L.  Long,  D.D.,  Professor 
of  Physics  at  Robert  College ;  by  the  Rev.  Geo.  F.  Her- 
rick,  D.D.,  the  veteran  missionary;  and  by  the  Rev. 
Hagopos  Djejizian,  professor  of  Armenian,  and  a  for- 
mer pupil  of  Dr.  Hamlin.  Unfortunately  no  report  of 
the  last  two  addresses  was  preserved.  Dr.  Long's,  which 
is  given  in  full,  was  based  upon  a  text  in  Heb.  xi.  4. 

"He  being  dead  yet  speaketh." 

Various  are  the  estimates  made  by  the  world  concern^ 
ing  those  who  by  death  have  been  called  away  from  life's 


Dr.  Long's  Address  57 

busy  scenes.    There  are  many  men  who  drop  out  of  the 

.„     ^       ,     ^,,  circle   of   the   Hving   and   their   de- 

Dr.  Long's  Address  ° 

parture  makes  no  visible  impres- 
sion whatsoever  upon  the  currents  of  the  world's  life. 
There  are  men  whose  death  simply  raises  the  aver- 
age of  general  intelligence  in  the  community  in  which 
they  have  lived.  There  are  however  other  men  of  marked 
individuality  whose  death  miakes  a  vacancy,  leaves  a 
gap  in  the  community,  speaks  to  the  hearts  of  men  and 
women  and  causes  them  to  feel  that  they  have  lost  a 
friend.  Their  lives  have  been  such  as  to  cause  them  to 
be  remembered.  The  ever  widening  circles  of  undulation 
carry  their  influence  even  to  distant  lands.  Death  to 
them  is  not  the  end.  They  continue  to  speak  to  us  in 
the  influence  of  their  lives  and  also  iri  the  monuments 
they  have  left  behind  them.  In  one  of  the  oldest  pieces 
of  literature  known  there  is  found  the  saying,  "More  than 
the  living  are  the  dead."  It  is  true.  The  world  resounds 
with  the  voices  of  the  dead.  The  world  is  filled  with  the 
monuments  of  the  dead,  with  the  works  of  those  who 
have  passed  away  from  earth.  It  is  well  for  us  occasion- 
ally to  turn  aside  from  the  business,  the  cares  and  the  oc- 
cupations of  life,  and  listen  to  these  voices  of  the  dead 
and  heed  the  admonitions  which  they  give  us,  and  the 
solemn  lessons  which  they  bring  to  our  minds.  In  this 
way  can  we  keep  up  our  connection  with  th?t  invisijile 
world  to  which  we  are  hastening;  and  we  may  aid  in 
making  our  lives  in  like  manner  a  blessing  to  those  who 
know  us,  and  thus  we  may  be  permitted  to  make  a  record 
which  shall  speak  after  we  are  gone  from  the 
scenes  of  earth. 

A  few  weeks  ago  while  in  the  great  busy  city  of  Paris 


^8  Cyrus  Hamlin 

I  read  a  telegram  in  the  daily  paper  that  Dr.  Cyrus  Ham- 
lin had  died  the  day  before  in  Portland,  Maine.  There 
were  thousands  of  Americans  and  Englishmen  then  in 
that  city  who  read  that  telegram  and  understood  some- 
thing of  who  this  distinguished  American  was,  whose 
death  was  flashed  upon  the  telegraphic  wires  over  the 
world.  I  doubt,  however,  if  there  was  one  in  all  tliat  com- 
pany to  whom  that  telegram  had  the  signification  that  it 
had  to  me,  or  who  could  appreciate  that  sense  of  per- 
sonal bereavement  conveyed  to  me  in  those  brief  lines. 

They  spoke  to  me  of  the  loss  of  a  friend  who  through 
an  acquaintance  of  more  than  forty  years  had  deeply  in- 
fluenced me  for  good  and  with  whom  was  closely  inter- 
twined that  network  of  influences  through  which  a  guid- 
ing Providence  had  directed  my  steps  to  this  land,  and 
had  determined  my  career  in  life. 

While  living  he  spoke  much  to  me  which  it  is  now  a 
pleasure  to  me  to  recall,  and  being  dead  he  yet  speaketh. 
Not  one  of  the  students  now  in  attendance  at  this  col- 
lege knew  him,  but  he  speaks  to  them.  The  record  of 
his  life  is  before  them  and  through  it  he  speaks  to  them. 
His  message  to  them  is  one  of  tender  afifection  and  of 
earnest  exhortation  to  a  life  of  activity  ever  true  to  their 
convictions  of  truth  and  duty. 

He  speaks  to  us  in  the  substantial  building  which  we 
now  call  Hamlin  Hall,  the  enduring  monument  of  his 
perseverance  and  his  manual  toil.  He  put  into  that 
building,  probably,  as  many  solid  days'  work  as  any 
workman  employed  in  its  construction.  Time  would  fail 
me  to  enumerate  the  many  physical  mementos  of  Dr. 
Hamlin's  genius,  industry  and  skill  which  we  have  all 
about  us  here,  and  in  the  village  of  Bebek,  which  speak 


Dr.  Longs  Address  ^g 

to  those  of  us  who  knew  him.  In  the  college  laboratory 
I  frequently  come  upon  broken  bits  of  apparatus  in  which 
I  recognize  pieces  of  his  handiwork,  especially  some 
work  done  with  the  blow-pipe,  in  the  use  of  which  he 
was  a  master.  They  speak  to  me  of  him  and  I  cannot 
think  of  throwing  them  away. 

But  he  speaks  not  only  to  us  but  to  all  the  friends  of 
popular  education  in  every  land  through  this  institution 
itself,  Robert  College,  in  its  foundation  and  the  broad 
principles  of  Christian  education  and  of  religious  free- 
dom upon  which  it  is  based.  We  desire  that  his  mem- 
ory be  kept  ever  green  and  fresh  in  this  college  and  as 
the  years  go  by  that  he  may  continue  to  speak  to  all 
words  of  wisdom,  brotherly  love  and  Christian  philan- 
thropy. The  name  in  our  calendar,  "Founder's  Day," 
will  henceforth  be  written  in  the  plural  number,  and  the 
day  will  celebrate  the  names  and  perpetuate  the  memory 
of  two  founders,  Robert  and  Hamlin ;  the  one  who'  fur- 
nished the  money  and  the  other  who  furnished  the  brains 
with  which  this  noble  institution  was  planned  and  exe- 
cuted. In  this  way  we  trust  that  Christopher  Robert 
and  Cyrus  Hamlin  may  continue  with  one  voice  to  speak- 
to  succeeding  generations  long  after  those  of  us  who 
personally  knew  them  shall  have  passed  away  from  earth. 

Time  will  not  permit  my  entering  into  biographical  de- 
tails of  that  wonderfully  interesting  life  in  this  land  dur- 
ing that  eventful  period  in  the  history  of  this  Empire 
between  the  years  1839  and  1874  in  which  he  took  so  ac- 
tive a  part.  To  those  of  you  who  have  not  known  him  it 
would  be  meagre  and  unsatisfactory ;  to  others  who  have 
known  him  and  those  who  have  read  what  has  been  pub- 
lished, it  would  be  unnecessary.     I  shall  of  necessity 


6o  Cyrus  Hamlin 

limit  myself  to  a  brief  summary  of  the  more  striking 
personal  characteristics  of  that  life  as  it  speaks  to  us  to- 
day. 

1.  The  first  and  most  striking*  personal  characteristic 
of  Dr.  Hamlin  was  his  diligence  and  his  indomitable  per- 
severance in  carrying  through  his  undertakings.  This 
was  manifest  in  early  life.  When  an  apprentice  boy 
learning  the  trade  of  a  silversmith,  he  was  very  indus- 
trious. One  morning  as  he  was  going  at  a  very  early 
hour  to  his  work,  the  text  of  Scripture  came  to  his  mind, 
"Seest  thou  a  man  diligent  in  business?  He  shall  stand 
before  kings."  He  said  to  himself,  "Well,  I  am  diligent 
in  business  but  I  do  not  think  I  shall  ever  stand  before  a 
king,  for  we  have  no  kings  in  America."  Nineteen  years 
after  that,  however,  when  the  Sultan  Abdul  Medjid  called 
him  to  stand  before  him  and  explain  to  him  the  working 
of  the  electric  telegraph,  a  new  invention  made  by  Dr. 
Hamlin's  college  class-mate^  and  life-long  friend,  Profes- 
sor Morse,  he  then  saw  the  accomplishment  of  the  pre- 
diction. 

2.  The  second  personal  characteristic  which  I  would 
mention  was  his  analytical  mind.  He  showed  a  scientific 
spirit  in  all  his  work.  He  had  what  may  recall  the  "lab- 
oratory method"  of  investigation.  He  was  always  try- 
ing to  formulate  the  result  of  his  investigation  and  exper- 
iment into  a  law  which  might  have  general  application. 
He  took  great  pleasure  in  all  kinds  of  mechanical  work. 
I  remember  distinctly  a  highly  instructive  lecture  which 
he  once  gave  on  the  subject  of  "Mortars  and  Cements." 

*Dr.  Long  was  misinformed.  Professor  Morse,  the  inventor  of 
the  Morse  telegraph,  was  a  friend  but  not  a  classmate  of  Dr. 
Hamlin. 


Dr.  Longs  Address  6 1 

It  would  have  been  acceptable  and  up  to  date  in  any 
technological  institution  in  the  world. 

3.  The  third  personal  characteristic  which  I  would  no- 
tice was  ardent  practical  philanthropy.  He  had  a  ver- 
itable passion  for  relieving  suffering  of  every  form.  His 
philanthropy  took  a  practical  turn.  He  was  constantly 
devising  some  means  to  help  willing  men  to  earn  an 
honest  living.  His  bakeries,  laundries,  army  contracts, 
sheet-iron  stove  works  and  tinplate  works  and  other  en- 
terprises, all  had  this  as  their  ultimate  object. 

4.  Connected  with  this  I  would  mention  as  a  fourth 
personal  characteristic  his  intense  personal  interest  in 
the  prosperity  of  every  young  man  who  had  ever  been  a 
student  under  his  instruction.  He  rejoiced  in  their 
business  success  in  life  and  in  every  opportunity  which 
he  found  of  putting  them  forward  and  helping  them  to 
honorable  ways  of  making  money.  A  small  royalty  upon 
the  money  which  he  has  helped  others  to  acquire  would 
at  least  have  given  him  a  competence  or  have  made  him 
a  rich  man.    But  his  thought  was  never  of  self. 

5.  Fifthly  I  would  mention  his  great  faith.  He 
was  a  man  of  sincere  faith,  deep  piety  and  profound  con- 
victions, always  ready  to  give  a  reason  for  the  hope  with- 
in him.  He  had  an  intense  love  for  the  good  and  the 
pure  and  he  had  an  intense  hatred  of  wrong  and  of  all 
wrongdoing  of  every  kind.  Every  kind  of  injustice,  un- 
truth and  insincerity'  called  forth  his  scathing  denuncia- 
tions. If  at  such  times,  like  some  of  the  old  Hebrew 
prophets,  he  passed  the  limits  of  ordinary  prudence  and 
diplomatic  etiquette  and  needlessly  made  enemies,  those 
who  knew  him  best  knew  that  he  was  thoroughly  honest 
and  sincere  in  his  denunciations. 


()2  Cyrus  Hamlin 

6.  Sixthly  I  would  mention  that  he  was  characterized 
by  a  simplicity  of  character  and  a  childlike  gentleness 
of  spirit  which  was  very  attractive.  By  way  of  illustra- 
tion I  can  do  no  better  than  to  give  the  following  inci- 
dent. When  in  the  hospital  about  to  undergo  a  serious 
surgical  operation  and  all  the  preparations  had  been 
completed  and  the  doctors  approached  to  administer  the 
chloroform,  the  patient  quietly  said,  "Wait  a  moment, 
gentlemen,  I  am  not  quite  ready  yet."  Then  folding  his 
hands  like  a  little  child  at  his  mother's  knee,  he  re- 
peated the  familiar  prayer  of  his  childhood,  "Now  I  lay 
me  down  to  sleep,  I  pray  the  Lord  my  soul  to  keep.  If 
I  should  die  before  I  wake,  I  pray  the  Lord  my  soul  to 
take."  He  then  said,  "Now,  gentlemen,  I  am  ready. 
Proceed  with  the  chloroform." 

My  mind  is  so  full  of  delightful  memories  that  I  have 
to  restrain  myself  in  regard  to  them.  I  have  been  with 
him  in  times  of  danger,  afifliction  and  trial,  and  I  have 
found  him  ever  the  brave,  warm  and  sympathizing  friend. 
There  is  one  scene  which  is  impressed  more  vividly  than 
any  other  on  my  mind  after  a  lapse  of  more  than  thirty 
years  and  I  cannot  forbear  describing  it  as  I  close  my 
imperfect  and  hurried  summary  of  his  character —  a  case 
in  which  the  Christian  courage  and  the  warm  brotherly 
sympathy  of  the  man  shone  forth  and  endeared  him  to 
my  heart. 

It  was  during  the  terrible  cholera  epidemic,  and  we 
were  together  in  a  miserable  underground  room  in  Stam- 
boul  where  were  about  a  dozen  poor  sufiFerers  in  various 
stages  of  the  malady.  I  had  been  alone  with  them,  but 
he  had  hunted  me  up,  and  came  in  offering  his  services 
to  assist  me  in  my  work.    I  pointed  out  to  him  one  whom 


Ministering  to  the  Sick  6j 

i  saw  to  be  past  hope.  He  was  actually  dying,  and  I  felt 
justified  in  leaving  him  in  order  to  devote  my  attention 
to  efforts  to  save  the  others.  The  poor  fellow  was  a 
young  Armenian  hamal  and  he  was  in  an  agony  of  terror 
at  approaching  death.  Dr.  Hamlin  knelt  on  the  ground 
by  his  side  and  taking  his  cold  clammy  hand  began  talk- 
ing toi  him  in  Armenian,  in  a  soft,  tender,  musical  voice 
which  at  once  arrested  the  attention  not  only  of  the  dying 
man  but  of  the  other  sufferers  in  the  room.  Their  groans, 
imprecations,  cries  and  entreaties  ceased  and  all  listened 
while  that  brotherly  voice  explained  the  way  of  salva- 
tion through  faith  in  Christ  and  then  sweetly  and 
earnestly  and  persuasively  prayed  that  the  fear  of  death 
might  be  taken  away  and  that  this  young  brother  might 
be  sustained  and  comforted  in  the  dying  hour. 

I  went  on  with  my  duties  and  did  not  cease  my  efforts 
to  check  the  progress  of  the  disease  with  the  other  pa- 
tients. Dr.  Hamlin's  exhortations  and  prayers  continued 
for  some  time,  and  at  length  when  his  voice  stopped  and  I 
turned  my  head  in,  that  direction,  I  saw  a  sweet,  trust- 
ing, I  may  say  triumphant  smile  light  up  the  face  of  the 
dying  man,  and  his  spirit  was  gone  to  God  who  gave  it. 

Dr.  Hamlin  reverently  closed  the  eyes  of  the  dead  and 
rose  from  his  knees.  I  shall  never  forget  the  look  of 
grateful  veneration  which  the  inmates  of  that  roomi,  all 
Armenians,  gave  him.  I  knew  him  to  be  far  from  well 
himself  and  I  saw  that  the  strain  had  been  severe  upon 
him,  so  I  persuaded  him  to  go  immediately  home.  That 
picture  has  remained  photographed  upon  my  memory, 
and  I  present  it  to  you  here  to-day  as  the  truest  and 
most  characteristic  picture  I  can  give  of  Dr.  Hamlin  as 
I  knew  him.  It  is  not  the  skilful  mechanic,  indefatigable 


()^  Cyrus  Hamlin 

man  of  business,  army  contractor,  architect,  or  educator, 
but  Dr.  Hamlin  the,  missionary,  the  faithful  minister  of 
Christ  comforting  the  dying  and  holding  up  the  Cross 
before  suffering  humanity,  which  I  regard]  as  his  true 
character,  one  which  has  been  somewhat  overlooked  by 
his  biographers. 

One  of  the  last  characteristic  notes  which  he  wrote  to 
a  friend  but  a  short  time  before  his  death  bore  this 
postscript :  "Health  good,  strength  feeble,  memory,  hear- 
ing, seeing,  all  failing.  Latter  half  of  my  ninetieth  year, 
The  past  wonderful,  the  future  cheerful  with  faith  and 
hope."  Fitting  close  of  such  a  life.  A  wreath  of  immor- 
tal honor,  a  victor's  crown  more  enduring  than  any 
laurel  wreath  of  earthly  fame,  has  been  placed  upon  his 
brow,  and  he  has  received  the  welcome  plaudit,  "Well 
done,  good  and  faithful  servant,  enter  thou  into  the  joy  of 
thy  Lord" 

For  years  his  heart  had  been  turning  with  longing 
toward  the  Bosphorus,  and  he  frequently  said  that  if  in 
another  world  of  being  it  be  permitted  to  the  disembod- 
ied spirit  to  revisit  former  scenes  of  interest,  his  course 
would  be  taken  direct  to  this  spot  where  we  are  assem- 
bled to-day.  However  that  may  be  we  may  rest  assured 
that  his  loyal  soul  will  still  rejoice  in  the  Master's  work, 
and  whithersoever  commanded  will  hasten  with  light- 
ning speed  and  untiring  to  execute  the  Master's  will- 
Farewell,  thou  friend  and  counsellor,  colleague  and 
brother !  I  am  thankful  to  have  known  thee.  I  have 
been  honored  by  association  with  thee  and  strengthened 
by  thy  companionship.  In  times  of  personal  sorrow  I 
have  been  comforted  by  thy  consoling  words,  and  I  have 
been  made  better  by  thy  example  of  self-sacrificing  devo- 


Dr.   Herrick's  Address  6^ 

tion  and  zeal  in  the  cause  of  God  and  humanity.  May  it 
be  permitted  us  to  continue  in  another  state  of  being  the 
friendship  begun  here  below. 

t^r^  t2^  O^ 

Dr.  Herrick's  address  dwelt  with  especial  emphasis 
on  Dr.  Hamlin's  life  and  work  previous  to  the  founding 
of  Robert  College.    He  said  in  part: 

When  I  landed  in  Constantinople,  forty-one  years 
ago,  I  found  here  five  men  whose  names  were  already 

Dr.  Herrick's  Address  ^"°^"  ^"^^"&  ^^^  Christians  of 
America  as  veteran  workers  in 
this  capital — Drs.  Goodell,  Schauffler,  Dwight,  Riggs 
and  Hamlin.  Of  these  five  men,  three — Goodell,  Schau- 
flfler  and  Riggs — were  then  and  always  known  as  trans- 
lators of  the  Bible  into  the  vernacular  languages  of  this 
country.  All  were  preachers.  Four  of  the  five  were 
doing  their  work  within  well-defined  traditional  lines. 
But  by  far  the  most  conspicuous,  the  best  known  name 
even  then,  though  the  others  had  come  to  this  country 
years  before  him,  was  that  of  Dr.  Hamlin.  It  was  he 
who  represented  what  I  may  call  the  enterprise,  the 
wide  view,  the  broad  and  catholic  scope  of  our  work. 
It  was  about  two  years  yet  before  Dr.  Hamlin  left  the 
relation  which  he  had  for  more  than  twenty  years  sus- 
tained, left  the  evangelical  arm  of  our  work  for  educa- 
tional work  in  connection  with  Robert  College. 

Now  what  I  wish  to  state  and  to  emphasize  is,  that 
however  distinguished  Dr.  Hamlin  is  as  founder,  with 
Mr.  Robert,  of  this  college,  yet  the  greatest  work  of  his 
life  was  crowded  into  the  years  from  1839  to  1861.     Dr. 


66  Cyrus  Hamlin 

Hamlin's  work,  his  methods  of  work  and  his  whole  Ufe 
in  this  city,  were  a  powerful  and  timely  contribution  to 
those  wide  and  generous  views  of  missionary  work,  then 
little  accepted,  but  now  general  among  all  who  work  for 
and  among  peoples  in  foreign  lands. 

The  aim  of  American  missionaries  in  lands  and  among 
races  already  Christian  has  never  been  to  proselytize, 
although  there  are  reasons,  into  which  there  is  no 
occasion  to  enter,  which  formerly  gave  countenance  to 
this  misunderstanding.  You  must  not  infer  from  any- 
thing that  I  am  saying  that  the  work  of  Dr.  Hamlin's 
associates  in  those  early  years,  though  less  conspicuous, 
was  one  whit  less  necessary  or  fruitful  than  his  own. 
What  I  wish  to  say  is,  that  the  quick  recognition  of 
something  out  of  the  common  that  needed  to  be  done  and 
then  the  instant  setting  about  the  doing  of  it,  the  large- 
hearted  philanthropy,  the  superb  self-reliance,  the  en- 
terprise, the  dash,  the  venturesome  and  challenging  ag- 
gessiveness  against  evil,  the  quick  recognition  of  possi- 
ble but  unconventional  ways  to  do  the  necessary  good, 
with  a  personality  that  graved  itself  on  all  with  whom  it 
came  in  contact  as  with  a  pen  of  iron  and  the  point  of  a 
diamond — it  was  this  force  which,  for  more  than  twenty 
years  before  this  college  existed,  gave  to  multitudes  in 
this  city  and  vicinity  the  conviction  that  American  mis- 
sionaries were  practical  men  who  desired  to  do  good  to 
all  classes  in  every  possible  way. 

My  second  reason  for  saying  that  Dr  Hamlin's 
greatest  work  was  done  before  this  college  existed  is 
that  the  college  is  the  normal  development  and  out- 
growth from  the  work  which  Dr.  Hamlin  had  already 
succesfully  undertaken.      What  he  did  for  the  college 


o 


Other  Addresses  6  J 

and  what  he  aimed  to  do  for  the  people  through  the  col- 
lege, was  the  natural  continuation,  under  more  promis- 
ing conditions,  of  work  that  he  was  already  doing 
under  difliculties  and  limitations.  Any  man  who  knew 
Dr.  Hamlin  in  the  first  years  of  my  acquaintance  with 
him  could  tell,  even  if  he  were  no  prophet,  what  Dr. 
Hamlin  would  do,  and  into  what  his  work  would  grow, 
given  a  Christopher  Robert  to  make  the  growth  and 
enlargement  possible.  It  was  not  forty  but  sixty  years 
ago  that  Dr.  Hamlin  began  to  build  Robert  College. 
To  the  interests  and  associates  of  his  life-work  Dr. 
Hamlin  turned  with  growing  affection  in  his  latest 
years. 

Besides  the  addresses  of  Professors  Long  and  Dje- 
jizian  and  Dr.  Herrick,  short  addresses  were  made  by 
Professors  Panaretoff  and  Eliou  in  Bulgarian  and  Greek 
respectively.  The  first-named  graduated  from  Robert 
College  during  Dr.  Hamlin's  presidency,  as  did  Prof. 
Djejizian  also.  Mr.  William  Sellar,  an  English  resident 
of  Bebek  and  for  many  years  a  near  neighbor  as  well  as 
valued  friend  of  Dr.  Hamlin,  spoke  on  behalf  of  his 
fellow-residents  of  Bebek.  In  that  village  Dr.  Hamlin's 
name  was  still  a  household  word,  not  only  with  the 
European  colony  but  among  the  natives.  Mr.  Sellar 
spoke  feelingly  of  Dr.  Hamlin's  character  as  a  neighbor, 
his  kindness,  unselfishness,  his  readiness  to  help  in 
trouble,  his  genial  friendliness,  which  made  him  every- 


68  Cyrus  Hamlin 

where  welcome,  as  all  his  Bebek  acquaintances  could 
testify. 

Two  of  Dr.  Hamlin's  favorite  hymns  ("God  moves 
in  a  mysterious  way"  and  "Rock  of  Ages")  were  sung 
at  this  meeting,  which  was  presided  over  by  Rev.  Dr. 
George  Washburn,  president  of  Robert  College. 
A  portrait  of  Dr.  Hamlin,  wreathed  in  laurel,  adorned 
the  stage,  bringing  vividly  to  the  memories  of  many 
there  present  the  features  of  him  whom  they  had  once 
known  as  a  near  friend  and  neighbor,  but  had  now 
"lost  a  while." 

Addresses  in  Boston 

On  the  sixth  of  January,  1901,  a  double  memorial  ser- 
vice was  held  in  the  Park  Street  church  in  remembrance 
of  the  life  and  work  of  Cyrus  Hamlin  and  Edwards  A. 
Park.  This  church  is  the  one  from  which  the  band  of 
missionaries,  of  which  the  young  Cyrus  Hamlin  was  one, 
had  been  sent  forth  to  their  work  in  a  farewell  meeting 
over  sixty-two  years  before.  At  the  memorial  services 
the  addresses  relating  to  Dr.  Hamlin  were  given  by  Rev. 
S.  L.  B.  Speare  and  Dr.  Jas.  L.  Barton.  Mr,  Speare's 
address  follows : 


Memorial  Service  in  Boston  6g 

On  Sunday  evening,  Dec.  2,  1838,  a  large  and  sympa- 
thetic audience  assembled  within  these  walls  to  listen  to 
Mr.  Speare's  Address  P-'^^ting  instructions  by  Secretary 
Anderson,  in  behalf  of  the  American 
Board,  to  their  youthful  missionary.  Rev.  Cyrus  Ham- 
lin, under  appointment  to  Constantinople.  An  ad- 
dress was  also  made  by  Rev.  PI.  G.  O.  Dwight,  on 
a  visit  from  the  same  field.  On  Monday  following,  the 
missionary,  accompanied  by  his  fragile  but  heroic  wife, 
embarked  at  Foster's  wharf,  thus  entering  upon  a  life- 
work  of  sixty-two  years.  And  how  memorable  that 
career  for  its  contributions  to  education,  mechanics,  phi- 
lanthropy, physical  health,  civil  freedom  and  the  king- 
dom of  Jesus  Christ !  We  hear  of  epoch-making  books. 
It  were  truer  to  history  and  reality  to  speak  of  epoch- 
making  men.  I  cannot  but  think  of  Dr.  Cyrus  Hamlin, 
mechanic,  scholar,  missionary,  educator,  statesman  and 
preacher,  as  an  epoch-making  practical  theologian.  By 
birth,  training  and  grace  he  had  many  superior  qualifica- 
tions. He  had  a  quick  and  unerring  instinct  for  strategic 
working  principles. 

In  1836,  when  a  student  in  the  Bangor  Theological 
Seminary,  at  a  time  of  great  personal  discouragement, 
he  used  all  the  time  he  could  command  in  advocating 
temperance  reform.  He  thus  early  put  into  three  watch- 
words the  vast  threefold  campaigns  of  later  years,  viz. : 
Light,  Love,  Law.  These  were  the  compact  themes  of 
public  and  effective  addresses  during  the  remaining 
months  of  his  seminary  course.  Now,  under  the  illus- 
trious leadership  of  Mrs.  Mary  H.  Hunt,  sixteen  million 
children  of  school  age  have  scientific  temperance  instruc- 
tion, by  law,  in  every  state  and  territory  of  our  Republic, 


yo  Cyrus  Hamlin 

with  the  exception  of  Georgia  and  Utah.  What  a  sheen  of 
light  belting  the  continent,  but  all  foreseen  as  a  condition 
of  success  by  the  undergraduate  student  of  divinity. 

In  splendid  co-operation  with  Mrs.  Hunt,  the  women 
of  Christendom,  led  now  by  Lady  Henry  Somerset,  are 
carrying  on  a  campaign,  elaborately  organized  indeed, 
but  with  Dr.  Hamlin's  second  watchword.  With  Love 
for  their  motto  they  seek  to  win  and  persuade  the  erring 
and  bring  generous  help  to  victims  of  the  world's  colossal 
desolation. 

But  the  young  student  also  foresaw  that  light  and  love, 
however  wide  their  work,  would  be  ineffectual  with  indi- 
viduals who  could  then  be  eflfectually  dealt  with  only  by 
law  and  its  background  of  force — that  last  resort  indis- 
pensable to  the  life  of  the  state  in  many  other  directions. 
This  was  long  before  Maine  had  its  prohibitory  law. 
Such  practical  forecast  was  illustrated  in  every  stage  of 
Dr.  Hamlin's  entire  life.  He  always  hewed  to  the  line, 
regardless  of  chips,  because  he  distinctly  saw  the  line. 
For  example,  his  contention  for  English  as  the  best 
means  of  education  for  usefulness  in  church  and  state  on 
missionary  ground  as  well  as  at  home.  Such  clear  vision 
of  ends  and  working  principles  was  practical  and  efficient 
because  of  his  extraordinary  fertility  of  resource.  Like 
the  Greek  soldier  with  a  short  sword,  Doctor  Hamlin 
always  had  the  supplementing  forward  step. 

In  the  summer  of  1837  he  came  up  from  Bangor  to 
Andover,  at  the  invitation  of  a  college  classmate,  for  the 
inaugural  address  of  Professor  Park.  Arriving  at  the  old 
chapel,  they  found  entrance  impossible.  Shall  he  fail  of 
his  errand?  Not  he !  It  was  but  the  work  of  a  few  mo- 
ments to  extemporize  from  a  neighboring  rail  fence  a 


Addresses  in  Boston  J I 

secure  platform  on  a  level  with  an  open  window,  where 
he  and  the  classmate  heard  every  word  "with  perfect 
ventilation";  and  before  the  audience  had  dispersed 
every  rail  was  in  place  again. 

Were  his  Bebek  students  in  rags,  he  could  clothe 
them.  Were  Christian  converts  boycotted  by  their 
guilds  and  in  danger  of  starving,  he  could  find  them  em- 
ployment, and  give  old  Stamboul  stoves,  rat-traps  and 
bread  such  as  they  never  saw  before.  Was  cholera  rag- 
ing in  the  filthy  tenements  of  an  oriental  city,  he  could 
prescribe  medicines  and  save,  also,  by  his  example  of 
moral  courage.  Were  gallant  British  soldiers  wounded, 
vermin-infested  and  shivering,  often  to  death,  in  clothes 
from  a  salt  sea-laundry,  he  saved  tons  of  clothing  from 
cremation  and  hundreds  of  lives,  by  extemporized  wash- 
ing machines  and  Christian  labor.  Did  Jesuits  and  Rus- 
sian hierarchs  block  his  way  to  a  site  for  Robert  College, 
at  his  suggestion  Admiral  Farragut,  whose  warship  was 
in  the  Golden  Horn,  asked  one  question  of  the  Grand 
Vizier,  and  in  due  time  Jesuits  and  Russians  saw  the  stars 
and  stripes  immutably  floating  over  a  noble  edifice,  for- 
ever dedicated  to  learning,  liberty  and  religion,  on  the 
grandest  height  of  all  the  shores  of  the  Bosphorus. 

By  natural  and  almost  necessary  connection  in  recall- 
ing the  qualities  of  Doctor  Hamlin's  strenuous  life,  we 
will  next  note  its  relentless  persistency.  His  mother, 
widowed  when  he  was  an  infant,  heard  from  the  neighs 
bors,  what  probably  she  had  learned  in  other  ways,  that 
"Cyrus  had  a  great  deal  of  grit."  The  Sultan's  Grand 
Vizier  thought  the  same  when  he  exclaimed,  "Won't 
that  Hamlin  ever  die?"  Did  committees  in  Boston  or 
councils  of  the  brethren  in  Constantinople  call  a  halt  and 


J 2  Cyrus  Hamlin 

veto  his  undertakings,  he  could  conquer  and  continue 
his  work  by  his  ingenious  but  iionorable  ways  of  obeying. 

Like  all  epoch-makers  Doctor  Hamlin  could  take  the 
initiative.  He  could  summarily  break  with  the  past, 
but  he  had  one  grand  distinction  from  many  restless  pro- 
gressives— he  was  always  loyal  to  fundamental  and  vi- 
tal truth.  He  never  said  to  Captain  Drew  of  the  "Eu- 
nomus,"  which  was  carrying  him  to  Constantinople, 
"Don't  mind  the  theories  of  navigation  or  the  stars,  but 
get  me  to  my  destination."  He  did  not  say  to  his  Bul- 
garian students,  "Ivlake  statesmen  of  yourselves,  but  do 
not  trouble  your  minds  about  political  economy,  or  eth- 
ics, as  taught  in  the  manuals  of  experts."  He  did  not 
teach  chemistry  or  mechanics  as  only  a  question  of  re- 
sults, regardless  of  principles  and  laws  of  nature. 

Doctor  Hamlin  believed  that  Time's  onflowing  river 
held  vast  and  priceless  contents  not  to  be  neglected  or 
lightly  esteemed,  if  one  would  wisely  build  characters, 
or  beget  and  nurture  mental  and  spiritual  life.  Creeds, 
dogma,  or  even  traditions,  never  gave  him  either  chills 
or  fever.  He  was  the  most  practical  of  men,  but,  for  that 
very  reason,  he  was  too  sensible  to  think  or  teach  that 
character  could  gain  through  an  absence  of  distinct, 
coherent  and  logical  convictions,  intelligently  formula- 
ted; or  that  duty  would  be  clear  and  commanding  if 
preceded  by  nebulous  doctrine  or  nerveless  negations. 

The  qualities  thus  far  noticed,  largely  had  their  origin 
and  continued  efficiency  because  underneath  and  over 
them  all  was  Doctor  Hamlin's  faith  in  God.  Like 
Paul,  he  knew  whom  he  had  believed.  Vigilant  and  in- 
defatigable to  the  last  in  planning  and  conducting  all 
his  many  and  various  campaigns,  he  never  forgot  whom 


Addresses  in  Boston 


73 


he  served  and  on  whose  unfaiHng  co-operation  he  reUed. 
This  personal  fellowship  of  faith,  baptizing  and  illuminat- 
ing all  intellectual  convictions,  kept  him  true,  without 
tremor,  to  his  one  mission  of  building  the  kingdom  of 
his  Lord  and  Alaster.  Immense  army  contracts,  during 
the  Crimean  War,  were  instantly  declined  whenever 
they  would,  in  appearance  even,  compromise  loyalty  to 
that  one  life-purpose.  And  when  his  business  genius  had 
accumulated  $25,000,  which  was  simply  a  secondary  con- 
sideration and  result,  it  must  all  go  into  the  churches 
of  his  love  and  care.  No  stain  of  self-seeking  ever 
marred  his  white  shield.  He  ever  excelled  in  walking 
out  with  his  full  weight  upon  the  promises  of  his  Heav- 
enly Father. 

Like  most  successful  men.  Doctor  Hamlin  could  and 
did  command  co-operation.  Did  he  give  promise  of  ex- 
ceptional usefulness  if  educated,  Dr.  Payson's  church  of 
Portland  offered  support.  Did  he  take  in  hand  to  build 
the  first  steam  engine  ever  built  in  his  native  state,  Neal 
Dow  and  others  joined  hands  with  him.  A  lighter-load 
of  white  bread  in  the  Golden  Horn  enlisted  a  New  York 
merchant  in  a  service  that  did  not  cease  until  Robert 
College  was  a  glorious  and  abiding  reality.  Unscrupu- 
lous British  contractors  might  conspire  against  him, 
but  their  superiors  saw  the  man  with  whom  they  were 
dealing  and  he  had  all  needful  right  of  way.  And,  in 
life's  autumn,  when  most  men  are  released  from  large 
undertakings,  he  put  new  and  permanent  life  into  a  col- 
lege at  home  because  her  alumni  believed  in  him  and  in 
his  power  to  conquer. 

No  man  so  earnest,  even  in  a  good  cause,  could  fail  of 
having  opponents,  some  of  them  bitter,  but  few  men,  if 


y^f  Cyrus  Hamlin 

any,  ever  had  truer  or  nobler  friends.  Did  he  need  a 
home  for  the  last  years  of  his  so-called  retirement — a  re- 
tirement full  of  engagements  such  as  some  young  men 
would  have  dreaded, — his  daily  mail  at  once  brought  un- 
solicited offerings  until  the  last  payment  was  made,  the 
largest  being  from  an  American  resident  of  Scotland 
with  whom,  at  one  time,  he  had  a  vigorous  discussion  and 
difference  over  a  question  in  his  Constantinople  work. 

No  man  ever  loved  his  friends  better  than  did  Dr. 
Hamlin.  After  a  brief  acquaintance  with  the  late  Dr. 
William  Butler,  the  glorious  pioneer  of  Methodist  mis- 
sions in  northern  India,  he  was  present  at  a  birthday 
gathering  in  Newton  Centre,  finding  his  way  from  Lex- 
ington in  a  wild  winter  blizzard  which  detained  loving 
friends  only  a  few  blocks  distant.  And  in  the  last  months 
of  Dr.  Furber  of  Newton,  he  said :  "We  cannot  let  him 
go,"  and  often  made  the  same  long  and  circuitous 
journey  of  loving  sympathy. 

He  made  a  farewell  visit  to  New  York,  Brooklyn  and 
New  Jersey,  saying  to  his  friends  it  would  be  his  last 
visit  but  it  must  be  as  "merry  as  a  wedding."  One  of 
these  visits  was  in  the  home  of  the  late  Doctor  Samuel 
Moody  Haskins,  then  in  his  only  pastorate,  of  more  than 
sixty  years,  of  St.  Mark's  church,  Brooklyn.  Dr.  Has- 
kins and  three  sisters  were  Doctor  Hamlin's  earliest 
schoolmates  in  Waterford,  Maine.  All  were  present  at 
this  interview.  After  recalling  far-away  days,  in  a  glad 
fellowship  of  reunion,  they  celebrated  and  reconsecrated 
their  mutual  love  by  a  sacramental  service.  When  the 
volume  now  in  preparation  by  loving  and  competent 
hands  appears,  it  will  publish  intimacies  and  mutual  ser- 
vice which  will  beautifully  illustrate  the  sweetness  and 


T^he  Rescued  Sailor  75 

light  of  earth's  noblest  communion  of  hearts  and  lives. 

In  contrast  with  some  of  the  world's  best  benefactors, 
Dr.  Hamlin  had  ideal  compensations  in  his  autumn  life. 
On  a  very  hot  July  noonday  of  1839  he  sought'  relief 
from  weariness  in  the  study  of  Armenian  by  going  to  the 
Galata  shore  of  the  Bosphorus  to  distribute  Italian  Tes- 
taments among  sailors  of  that  nationality.  On  his  way 
he  rescued  a  blaspheming  American  sailor,  whom  he 
found  apparently  dying  of  cholera  in  the  street.  Under 
difficulties  that  would  have  appalled  and  repelled  any 
other  man,  he  brought  medicines,  physician,  nursing  and 
Bible  teaching  to  the  pitiful  wreck,  until  he  saw  him  em- 
barking for  America,  clothed  and  saved  in  body  and  soul. 
A  year  later  he  heard  of  one  of  Father  Taylor's  flock  at 
his  Bethel  in  North  Square,  Boston,  praying,  "I  thank 
Thee,  O  Lord,  for  the  American  missionaries !  When  I 
was  dying  a  blasphemous  dog  in  the  streets  of  Constan- 
tinople, Thou  didst  send  Thy  servants  Hamlin,  Hebard 
and  Goodell  to  save  me,  soul  and  body.  Since  then  I 
have  been  trying  to  serve  Thee,  O  Lord,  and  I  pray  for 
all  the  American  missionaries  the  world  over.    Amen." 

In  1867,  at  a  hotel  in  Paris,  he  learned  that  his  sailor 
friend  had  been  very  useful,  helping  Chaplain  Damon  in 
Honolulu.  After  twenty-five  years  more  of  silence, 
Providence  kindly  brought  tidings  supremely  gratifying. 
His  sailor  had  been  a  faithful  Christian  worker  till  his 
death  in  1861.  He  had  married  and  left  a  son,  Hamlin 
Cyrus.  The  Bible  presented  in  Constantinople  by  his 
beloved  benefactor  had  been  carefully  guarded  for  the 
twenty-five  years  and  was  tenderly  cherished  by  the  son. 
Last  autumn,  at  the  Ecumenical  Council  in  New  York, 
his  hand  was  eagerly  grasped  by  an  Armenian  pastor 


j6  Cyrus  Hamlin 

whose  church  and  parsonage  he  had  saved  with  the  first 
proceeds  of  his  bakery  in  the  Crimean  war. 

Perhaps  the  best  compensation  of  all  was  the  veteran 
missionary's  grateful  recognition  of  the  Divine  Hand  in 
all  his  work.  Many  of  you  remember  his  last  attendance 
at  the  American  Board  meeting  at  Providence,  and  his 
thrilling  testimony  that  the  repeated  and  well-nigh 
crushing  disappointments  of  his  life  had,  in  many  instan- 
ces, turned  into  signal  victories  for  the  Kingdom  of  his 
Lord  and  Master. 

Any  mention  of  Doctor  Hamlin  that  did  not  empha- 
size his  Christian  piety  would  be  seriously  defective.  In 
his  late  college  presidency,  in  America,  his  duties  were 
exceptionally  miscellaneous  and  onerous,  but  he  was  al- 
ways in  his  pew  at  both  Sunday  services,  and  mid-week 
prayer  meeting  almost  never  missed  his  active  support. 
And  in  his  last  months,  unable  to  hear  a:  word  of  the 
sermon,  his  pastor  had  his  sympathetic  and  devout  pres- 
ence. When  calling,  in  the  last  weeks  of  his  life,  upon  a 
beloved  brother  minister  of  exceptional  eminence,  their 
favorite  theme  was  the  atonement.  Calvary's  cleansing 
stream.  At  the  Middlebury  centennial  last  summer, 
where  deserved  praise  of  his  invaluable  service  was  upon 
every  lip  and  beamed  in  every  eye,  his  choicest  and  most 
tenderly  remembered  experience  was  a  quiet  interview 
with  a  former  instructor  upon  the  joy  of  sins  forgiven. 
Together  they  saw  the  invisible  Saviour  bearing  away 
their  sins,  with  which,  therefore,  they  had  no  more  to  do. 

Secretary  Anderson  closed  his  instructions  on  that  far- 
away Sunday  evening  with  these  words  :  "Go  carry  glad 
tidings  of  great  joy  from  the  churches  of  the  West  to 
the  churches  of  the  East.    Bid  them  arise  and  shine,  their 


Addresses  in  Boston  yj 

light  being  come,  and  the  glory  of  the  Lord  having 
risen  upon  them.  Be  faithful  unto  death  and  a  crown  of 
righteousness  shall  be  given  you  in  the  day  when  you 
and  we  meet  in  the  presence  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour." 
On  the  8th  of  last  August,  when  midnight  was  near,  the 
missionary,  thus  commissioned,  in  a  moment  was  called 
from  a  life  strenuous  and  busy  to  the  last,  to  join  the 
three  secretaries  in  whose  name  these  parting  words 
were  spoken.  Who  can  doubt  the  joy  of  their  immediate 
reunion  in  fulfilment  of  those  words !  God's  people  will 
never  forget  how  faithful  was  that  missionary 'in  all  his 
long  and  eventful  life,  and  we  are  equally  sure  that 
among  the  glorified,  whom  no  man  can  number — yes, 
in  the  presence  of  our  Lord  and  Master,  his  crown  of 
righteousness  will  be  forever  resplendent. 


Dr.  Barton  spoke  of  Cyrus  Hamlin  as  the  man  for 
the  times.    He  said: 

Some  men  impelled  by  personal  ambition  forge  their 
way  to  success  by  dint  of  persistent  purpose  and  effort, 

while  others,  forgetful  of  them- 
Dr.  Barton's  Address        ,  ,  ,    , 

selves  and  actuated  by  a  conse- 
crated purpose,  always  stand  in  the  forefront  of  the 
battle  line.  In  this  latter  class  Cyrus  Hamlin  always 
belonged,  from  his  student  days  in  Bridgeton  Academy 
to  his  triumphal  translation  at  Portland,  Maine,  on  the 
evening  of  August  8,  1900. 

Cyrus,  the  boy,  seemed  never  ambitious  for  himself 
except  to  succeed  in  the  execution  of  the  task  in  hand. 
A  neighbor  said  to  his  mother  in  Waterford,  Maine, 


j8  Cyrus  Hamlin 

'Cyrus  is  a  good  boy,  but  too  persistent,"  adding,  "but 
he  may  overcome  this  in,  time." 

The  persistent  purpose  to  carry  to  a  complete  success 
everything  he  undertook,  characterized  his  manufacture 
of  ox  yokes  and  tip  cart  upon  the  farm,  his  apprentice- 
ship in  Portland,  his  student  life  in  college,  where  he  held 
first  place  in  a  class  distinguished  for  talent,  in  his  work 
as  missionary  and  college  builder  in  Turkey,  and  as  the- 
ological professor,  college  president  and  author  in  the 
United  States. 

These  characteristics  which  were  so  marked,  coupled 
with  an  unusual  talent  for  practical  mechanics,  organi- 
zation, statesmanship,  a  matchless  consecration  to  the 
service  of  his  Lord  and  Master,  and  an  overwhelming 
love  for  men — all  combined — ^when  his  every  talent  was 
called  into  requisition  by  the  exigencies  of  his  times, 
have  made  him  for  half  a  century  a  marked  figure  upon  two 
continents  and  prominent  among  leaders  in  not  less  than  a 
half  dozen  nations. 

This  man  of  many  talents  and  of  matchless  energy  was 
produced  for  his  age.  We  can  now  see  the  hand  of  that 
over-ruling  Providence  in  which  he  so  implicitly  be- 
lieved firmly  but  persistently  leading  him  by  the  way 
that  directed  to  great  and  noble  results. 

Cyrus  Hamlin  was  born  January  5,  181 1,  six  months 
after  the  American  Board  was  organized,  and  three 
months  after  its  first  meeting.  The  next  day  after  his 
birth,  just  ninety  years  ago  this  very  day,  the  first  for- 
eign missionaries  ever  sent  out  from  American  shores 
were  ordained  and  commissioned  in  Salem,  Mass.  When 
the  attention  of  the  American  Board  was  first  directed  to 
the  Armenians  in  Turkey,  young  Cyrus  was  putting  iron 


Dr.   Barton  s  Address  yg 

into  his  blood  and  steel  into  his  bones  and  marrow,  and 
the  practical  arts  into  his  head  by  driving  oxen,  picking 
stones  and  manufacturing  farming  implements  under 
the  rigor  of  a  Northern  New  England  climate  and  amid 
the  stumps  and  stones  of  a  reluctantly  responsive  Maine 
soil. 

In  1829,  the  very  year  Messrs.  Dwight  and  Smith 
made  their  extensive  exploration  tours  in  Armenia,  pre- 
liminary to  a  greatly  enlarged  mission  work  among  those 
people  to  whom  Cyrus  Hamlin  later  dedicated  his  life, 
the  young  silversmith  in  Portland  decided  to  give  up 
his  trade,  then  fairly  well  mastered,  and  enter  upon 
a  course  of  study  in  preparation  for  the  Christian 
ministry. 

Cyrus  Hamlin,  the  student  of  theology,  did  not  elect 
to  go  to  Turkey,  his  choice  of  field  being  Africa  or  China. 
The  God  of  missions,  through  the  Prudential  Committee, 
selected  another  field  for  him,  removed  from  that  of  his 
choice  by  the  distance  of  a  third  of  the  world's  circum- 
ference. 

The  year  when  he  first  set  foot  upon  missionary  soil 
in  Turkey,  1839,  there  arose  in  Constantinople  a  most 
determined  and  violent  persecution  of  the  evangelical 
Christians  in  that  country,  led  by  the  Armenian  Patriarch 
and  sanctioned  by  Sultan  Mahmud  H  himself.  This  con- 
tinued for  a  period  of  many  years.  These  times  demand- 
ed men  of  iron,  men  of  ready  resources  to  steady  the 
Armenian  evangelical  Christians  and  to  devise  measures, 
not  only  for  their  protection  and  comfort,  but  for  their 
preservation  as  individuals  and  as  a  community.  It 
is  universally  conceded  to-day  that  no  one  in  that  Empire 
at  that  time  possessed  the  training  or  natural  talent  to 


8o  Cyrus  Hamlin 

grapple  successfully  with  the  question,  except  the  young! 
man  Hamlin.  The  practical  knowledge  he  had  obtained 
upon  the  farm,  in  the  silversmith's  trade,  in  the  labora- 
tory, building  his  steam  engine  at  Bowdoin — all  backed 
by  his  abhorrence  of  injustice  and  his  boundless  sym- 
pathy for  the  persecuted,  was  turned  into  account  in  the 
erection  of  stove  factories,  flouring  mills  and  bakeries, 
in  making  rat-traps,  assaying  minerals,  developing  sil- 
ver-plating and  other  industries  that  brought  courage, 
cheer  and  an  honest  living  to  the  persecuted,  and  dis- 
heartened the  persecutors ;  and  thus  Protestant  Chris- 
tianity in  Turkey  was  preserved  in  strength  without  be- 
ing pauperized. 

Previous  to  1840  the  missionaries  had  attempted  to 
work  upon  the  Gregorianj  church  only  through  the  me- 
dium of  her  ecclesiastics  and  the  church  organization 
itself.  Separate  enterprises  such  as  schools,  independent 
congregations,  or  any  eflfort  that  might  be  interpreted 
as  divisive,  were  deprecated  and  avoided.  During  this 
period  giants  like  Goodell,  Dwight  and  Schauffler,  had 
labored  in  co-operation  with  the  leaders  of  the  Arme- 
nians themselves  to  reform  the  church  from  within. 
When  the  effort  failed,  because  of  the  excommunication 
of  those  who  had  adopted  evangelical  ideas,  making 
them  outcasts  from  the  church,  from  society,  from  the 
protection  of  the  law,  and  from  the^  right  'to  team  an 
honest  living  or  even  to  live  at  all,  it  was  evident  that 
there  must  be  a  complete  and  radical  change  in  method 
of  procedure,  one  which  would  succeed,  not  through  co- 
operation with  the  Gregorians,  but  in,  the  face  of  their 
mostj  bitter  persecution.  Who  was  sufficient  for  these 
things  except  one  of  the  youngest  of  all  the  missionaries, 
Cyrus  Hamlin ! 


Dr.   Barton's  Address  8 1 

Out  of  this  furnace  of  persecution  grew  up  Bebek 
Seminary,  in  which  students  became  largely  indepen- 
dent of  outside  aid  through  the  labors  of  their  own 
hands,  while  at  the  same  time  they  acquired  something 
of  the  stability  and  energy,  independence  and  faith  in 
God,  which  their  leader  brought  to  them  from  the  farm, 
workshop  and  college  in  his  New  England  home. 

After  this  industrial,  self-helping,  self-preserving  work 
among  the  native  people  was  weil  inaugurated,  and  had 
fully  demonstrated  its  practical  value,  the  Crimean  War 
broke  out  and  Constantinople  must  needs  be  the  centre 
of  its  operations.  When  the  English  soldiers  in  Scutari 
v/ere  dying  by  the  score  in  the  hospital  because  of  the 
lack  of  wholesome  bread,  there  was  no  direction  in  which 
they  or  the  British  Government  could  turn  for  help  but 
to  that  little  man  on  the  other  side  of  the  Bosphorus, 
who  was  advised  to  leave  the  farm  in  Maine,  "because 
he  was  said  to  be  too'  slight  to  bear  the  brunt  and  rigor 
of  that  life."  But  .the  stern  discipline  of  early  years 
had  fitted  him  to  respond  to  the  cry  of  the  wounded,  sick 
and  dying  soldiers  for  proper  food.  We  all  know  how 
the  Protestant  Christians  of  Bebek  and  Constantinople, 
under  the  direction  of  Cyrus  Hamlin,  supplied  the  needed 
bread.  The  story  reads  like  a  romance.  When,  owing 
to  the  unsanitary  conditions  of  the  hospital  and  the 
heartlessness  of  the  officer  in  charge,  the  lives  of  many 
brave  English  boys  were  daily  sacrificed,  who  should 
be  the  first  to  see,  their  terrible  condition  and,  despite 
countless  difhculties,  bring  about  a  change,  but  the 
baker  of  Bebek,  who  regularly  visited  the  hospital  to 
look  after  his  bread  contracts.  The  baker  became  a 
iaundryman,  the  unfaithful  officer  was  discharged,  and 


82  Cyrus  Hamlin 

multitudes  of  homes  were  made  a  thousand  times  glad  that 
Cyrus  Hamlin,  the  man  whose  motto  was,  "He  who  deter- 
mines to  succeed,  if  right,  will  not  be  disappointed,"  was 
sent  as  a  missionary  to  Constantinople  fifteen  years  before. 

For  ten  years  previous  to  1856,  there  had  been  a 
marked  growth  in  ,the  number  of  evangehcal  churches 
in  Turkey.  Separation  from  the  old  church  was  rapid, 
and  new  Protestant  churches  were  organized  in  various 
parts  of  the  Empire,  including  regions  as  far  east  as  Har- 
poot.  It  was  essential  that  these  bodies'  of  Christians 
have  proper  places  of  worship.  But  they  were  not  able 
to  provide  for  themselves,  neither  was  the  American 
Board  able  to  give  the  needed  money.  But  the  man  for 
the  times  was  there,  and  when  the  financial  results  of  the 
life-saving  work  of  the  hospital  were  summed  ,up,  he 
found  in  his  hands  funds  sufficient  for  the  erection  of 
thirteen  churches  with  schools  annexed,  which  funds  he 
freely  gave  for  this  purpose,  and  the  immediate  and  cry- 
ing need  was  met. 

All  of  these  experiences  were  but  preparatory ,  to  a 
greater  and  more  prolonged  struggle  against  the  com- 
bined opposing  forces  of  the  Empire,  terminating  in  the 
erection  and  equipment  of  Robert  College  upon  the  most 
commanding  site  along  the  entire  length,  of  the  Bospho- 
rus.  It  was  a  battle  royal  between  two  determined 
forces.  On  the  one  side  there  were  an  inflexible  pur- 
pose, a  clear  conviction  of  the  need  of  such  an  institution 
for  the  salvation  of  that  land,  and  an  unwavering  faith 
in  the  guidance  and  support  of  Almighty  God ;  and  on 
the  other  side  the  powerful  Gregorian  church,  the  deter- 
mined opposition  of  the  Jesuits  and  the  Pope  at  Rome, 
the  suspicions  and  hatred  of  Russia  and  France  and  the 


Dr.  Hamlin  in  his  Ninetieth  Year 


Dr.   Barton  s  Address  ^j 

enmity  of  Abdul  Aziz,  the  Sultan  of  Turkey.  Who  else 
would  have  had  the  courage  to  enter  upon  what  appeared 
to  be  so  uneven  a  conflict;  and  who,  had  he  entered, 
would  have  persevered  for  seven  long  years  of  disap- 
pointment and  opposition,  marked  by  plottings  and  in- 
trigue? 

That  magnificent  institution  to-day  proclaims  more 
eloquently  than  words  can  utter: — the  fact  "that  for  this 
masterpiece  of  foresight,  consecration  and  energy,  the 
Man  had  been  prepared  by  Him  who  presides  over  all 
human  plans  for  the  advancement  of  His  Kingdom." 

Something  of  that  irresistible  force  of  character  and 
faith  that  counts  all  things  possible  to  him  that  believes 
and  works,  was  imparted  to  the  young  men  who  were  so 
close  to  him  during  these  trying  years  at  Bebek,  and  the 
years  of  larger  freedom  at  Robert  College.  The  earlier 
period  of  the  Protestant  movement  demanded  such  men 
to  lead  the  increasing  Protestant  communities  and  direct 
their  energies  into  channels  of  wise,  productive  activi- 
ties. These  students  soon  became  in  northern  Syria,  in 
Armenia,  in  Koordistan,  in  Asia  Minor,  and  in  Bulgaria, 
men  of  power  and  distinguished  kaders  in  moral  and  so- 
cial reform.  They,  too,  in  their  turn,  became  the  men 
of  their  place  and  time,  and  put  the  stamp  of  the  instruc- 
tion they  had  received  upon  those  whom  they  instructed. 
Two  great  principles  of  missionary  operation  which 
have  now  been  adopted  by  nearly  every  i  leading  foreign 
missionary  Board,  were  introduced  by  Dr.  Hamlin  into 
the  practical  operations  of  his  work  in  Turkey.  In  both 
of  these  things  he  was  strenuously  opposed  by  nearly  all 
of  his  associates,  and  by  the  Board  at  home,  yet,  in  the 
wise  use  of  these,  lay,  in  no  small  measure,  the  unique- 


84  Cyrus  Hatnlin 

ness  of  his  work  and  the  secret  of  his  success.  These 
were: 

1st.  The  education  of  advanced  students  through  the 
medium  of  the  English  language  ;  and 

2nd.  The  introduction  of  industrial  occupations  as  a 
source  of  self-help  to  the  student  while  studying,  to  be 
used  by  him  in  after  years,  in  case  of  need,  as  a  means  of 
support. 

As  we  read  anew  the  life  and  correspondence  of  Cyrus 
Hamlin,  the  Student,  the  Architect  of  institutions,  the 
Diplomat,  and  the  Christian  Missionary, — as  we  study 
the  wonderful  growth  of  the  evangelical  work  in  Turkey 
and  become  personally  acquainted  with  the  men  trained 
in  Bebek  Seminary  and  Robert  College  between  the  year 
1841  and  1873,  we  cannot  but  admire  that  Providence  by 
v/hich  Dr.  Hamlin  was  chosen  and  reared  of  the  Lord  at 
a  peculiar  time  and  for  a  great  work,  a  work  which  he 
accomplished  with  marvellous  fidelity  and  skill. 

Changing  only  the  tenses  of  the  verbs,  the  words  of 
the  Psalmist'  seem  to  apply  wonderfully  to  the  life  of  him 
whom  we  remember  with  honor  and  affection  to-night. 

Because  he  set  his  love  upon  Me,  therefore  I  delivered  him, 

I  set  him  on  high,  because  he  knew  My  name. 

He  called  upon  Me,  and  I  ansvi^ered  him ; 

I  was  with  him  in  trouble, 

I  delivered  him  and  honored  him. 

With  long  life  did  I  satisfy  him 

And  show  him  My  salvation. 

e^*  ^^  ^£f^ 

In  Turkey,  at  various  mission  centres,  the  Arme- 
^  Psalm  xci,  15,  16. 


Other   Tributes  8^ 

nians  of  the  various  Protestant  churches  and  conferen- 
ces took  note  of  the  passing  away  of  the  oldest  Ameri- 
can missionary  to  their  people.  At  the  local  conference 
of  the  evangelical  churches  of  the  Province  of  Nico- 
media,  Western  Turkey,  the  following  minute  was 
passed  by  that  body  on  September  28,  and  by  its  clerk, 
Hovsep  Djejizian,  transmitted  to  the  secretaries  of  the 
American  Board  at  Boston: 

"To  the  entire  Armenian  nation,  but  especially  to  the  evangeli- 
cals, whom  he  helped  to  organize  into  a  community  with  rights 
and  privileges,  Dr.  Hamlin  was  a  spiritual  father  and  guide.  In 
his  day  he  trained  and  instructed  our  preachers  and  other  influen- 
tial brethren,  and  both  pecuniarily  and  by  personal  labor  he  aided 
our  churches,  schools  and  benevolent  institutions.  His  Christian 
character  and  indefatigable  ingenuity  remain  to  us  an  ideal  and 
an  example.  The  departure  of  this  aged  servant  of  God  into  the 
light  of  his  Master's  immediate  presence,  while  gain  to  him, 
leaves  us  with  a  sense  of  irretrievable  loss.  We  desire  that  this 
expression  of  our  heart's  feelings  be  endorsed  in  our  records  as 
a  perpetual  reminder  to  us  of  Dr.  Hamlin's  life  and  work." 

<^^  <^^  t2^ 

Other  Tributes 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Lexington  Historical  Society, 
held  Oct.  9,  1900,  the  following  resolutions,  introduced 
by  Rev.  A.  W.  Stevens,  were  unanimously  passed  by  a 
rising  vote : 


S6  Cyrus  Ha?nlin 

Whereas,  in  the  due  course  of  nature — his  years  being  many  and 
his  life  full  of  fruition— death  has  removed  from  our  midst  our 
most  distinguished  fellow-citizen  and  the  oldest  member  of  this 
society ; 

Resolved,  that  we  as  citizens  of  the  town  of  Lexington  and 
members  of  the  Lexington  Historical  Society,  hereby  express  our 
sense  of  the  deep  and  deplorable  loss  which  in  both  these  rela- 
tions we  have  sustained  in  the  recent  decease  of  Rev.  Dr.  Cyrus 
Hamlin. 

Resolved,  that  in  him  we  recognize  a  character  which  is  rarely 
found  in  any  period  of  history  or  in  any  community,  his  career 
being  crowned  with  an  unusually  long,  varied  and  eminent  useful- 
ness, with  stainless  integrity  and  splendid  nobility,  and  with  a 
combination  of  sweetness  of  spirit,  strength  of  purpose,  invincible 
courage,  marked  ability  and  unswerving  devotion  which  have  given 
him  a  name  that  will  not  soon  cease  to  be  honored  in  many  lands 
and  by  many  peoples ; 

Resolved,  that  in  Dr.  Hamlin  we  see  the  best  type  of  the  real 
missionary — one  who  went  forth  in  his  vigorous  early  manhood 
from  his  native  land,  where  his  academic  accomplishments  and 
great  talents  would  surely  have  given  him  high  distinction  among 
his  fellow  clergy,  into  a  far  and  strange  country,  to  a  people  pe- 
culiarly suspicious  and  unfriendly,  whose  respect  and  confidence 
he  finally  and  completely  won  by  sheer  force  of  character  and 
honorable  and  conspicuous  achievement — devoting  himself  not 
merely  to  preaching  of  doctrine,  but  in  a  far  higher  degree  to  the 
practice  of  those  ethical  principles  which  everywhere  and  always 
make  for  righteousness  and  true  civilization ;  building  up  from  its 
very  foundations  a  noble  institution  of  learning  and  broad  culture, 
which  remains  to-day  and  doubtless  will  long  continue  a  fit  monu- 
ment to  his  indefatigable  zeal  and  prophetic  wisdom ; 

Resolved,  that  we  consider  our  town  of  Lexington  highly  hon- 
ored and  fortunate,  in  that  Dr.  Hamlin  chose  it  among  all  others 
as  the  home  of  his  old  age,  where  together  with  his  family  he 
might  spend  his  last  years  in  peaceful  and  quiet  living — never 
ceasing,  however,  from  good  works  and  faiithful  service,  but,  like 
a  true  soldier  in  the  cause  so  dear  to  his  heart,  falling  at  the  last 
with  all  his  armor  on,  and  the  sword  of  endeavor  quivering  in  his 
dying  grasp ;  thus  making  our  historic  town  still  more  historic. 


Other  Tributes  8j 

The  issue  of  the  Lexington  Minute  Man  following  the 
meeting  at  which  these  resolutions  were  passed,  printed 
the  remarks  made  by  Rev.  A.  W.  Stevens  when  he  pre- 
sented the  resolutions  for  adoption.  Mr.  Stevens  being 
a  Unitarian,  the  warmth  and  cordiality  of  his  tribute  are 
all  the  more  significant  of  the  wide  and  extra-denomina- 
tional character  of  Dr.  Hamlin's  friendships  and  the  af- 
fection which  he  excited  in  others.  An  ardent  combat- 
ant in  theological  controversy,  a  stalwart  defender  of  his 
own  doctrinal  convictions.  Dr.  Hamlin's  heart-warmth 
was  not  confined  to  those  who  agreed  with  him ;  and 
clergymen  whose  beliefs  were  widely  apart  from  his  own 
v/ere  among  his  dearest  friends,  and  warmly  reciprocated 
his  cordiality  and  esteem.  We  reproduce  the  article  re- 
ferred to : 

As  a  very  few  of  the  members  were  present  at  the  meeting  of  the 
Historical  Society  last  week,  when  remarks  and  resolutions  were 
made  and  passed  in  memoriam  of  the  late  Rev.  Cyrus  Hamlin, 
D.D. ;  and  as  there  are  many  other  warm  friends  of  the  deceased 
who  will  be  glad  to  have  preserved  in  printed  form  the  appre- 
ciative remarks  of  Rev.  A.  W.  Stevens,  offered  on  that  occasion, 
we  are  glad  to  be  able  to  furnish  them,  as  follows : — 

Dr.  Hamlin  was  my  near  neighbor  and  friend  for  only  about 
two  years;  yet  in  that  time  I  had  come  to  know  him  so  well,  to 
esteem  him  so  highly,  and  to  love  him  so  truly,  that  his  death  fell 
upon  me  as  a  personal  affliction. 

No  one  not  knowing  Dr.  Hamlin  intimately  could  know  how 
really  lovable  a  man  he  was.     Of  somewhat  austere  bearing  and 


88  Cyrus  Hamlin 

pronounced  opinion,  he  was,  nevertheless,  truly  winning  and 
charming  in  his  personality.  Though  his  creed  was  of  the  stern 
Puritan's  type,  his  heart  was  as  gentle  and  tender  as  any  child's 
or  woman's.  He  had  a  deep  insight  into  essential  character,  and 
cordially  accepted  a  man  at  his  actual  worth.  His  experience  and 
observation  of  men  had  been  extraordinarily  large ;  and  though  he 
was  ever  stout  in  the  defence  of  his  own  views,  he  was  by  no 
means  scant  in  his  estimation  of  the  moral  qualities  of  those  who 
differed  widely  from  his  own  orthodox  standard  of  belief.  I  have 
heard  him  give  expression  to  the  most  thorough  appreciation  of 
the  character  of  certain  high  Turkish  officials  whom  he  had 
come  to  know  intimately,  albeit  in  the  main  he  had  a  profound 
distrust  and  dislike  of  the  Turks  in  their  general  principles  and 
conduct ;  and  both  at  home  and  abroad  he  numbered  among  his 
personal  friends  in  this  world  many  whose  secure  passports  to  the 
next  he  perhaps  could  not  conscientiously  have  signed. 

Dr.  Hamlin  was  in  the  truest  sense  a  son  of  New  England,  a. 
legitimate  fruit  of  her  fecund,  tireless,  and  masterful  activity.  He 
was  a  Yankee  of  the  Yankees.  He  could  make  a  watch,  a  steam 
engine,  a  windmill,  a  loaf  of  bread,  a  doctrinal  system,  or  a  good 
joke  that  would  stand  the  test  of  both  trial  and  service.  His 
humor  was  racy  and  searching;  and  he  could  tell  a  story  with  all 
the  particularity  of  incident,  logic  of  connection,  and  interest  of 
continuance  and  conclusion  that  the  most  trained  raconteur  could 
devise.  He  was  marvellous  good  company,  always  entertaining 
and  instructive,  having  immense  resources  from  which  to  draw 
his  facts  and  illustrations ;  indeed,  he  was  one  to  whom  in  private 
intercourse  one  never  tired  of  yielding  the  floor  or  giving  the 
listening  ear. 

Take  him  all  in  all,  Dr.  Hamlin  was  one  of  the  few  realljr 
remarkable  and  distinctive  men  whom  it  has  been  my  good  for- 
tune to  know ;  and  I  count  his  acquaintance  and  friendship  among 
the  permanent  felicities  of  my  life. 

t^*  e^*  «^* 

The  American  Antiquarian  Society,  of  which  Dr. 
Hamlin  was  an  active  member,  and  in  which  he  counted 


His  Character  Summed  Up  8g 

2l  number  of  very  warm  friends,  at  the  annual  meeting 
held  on  October  24,  1900,  listened  to  a  sketch  of  the  life 
of  Dr.  Hamlin,  read  by  Rev.  Dr.  Daniel  Merriman. 
This  was  shortly  afterward  published  in  the  Proceedings 
of  the  American  Antiquarian  Society  (vol.  XIV,  New 
Series,  Part  i).  The  closing  words  of  this  sketch  are  as 
follows : 

"His  sagacity  and  aggressiveness  and  perseverance  in 
what  he  regarded  as  a  righteous  cause  were  equalled 
only  by  his  rectitude,  unselfishness,  and  superb  conse- 
cration. 

"He  possessed  an  unusual  memory,  had  great  talent 
for  friendship,  was  a  generous  hater  and  an  ardent  pa- 
triot. He  was  a  clever  mechanic,  a  learned  scholar,  a 
clear-headed  thinker,  a  vigorous  writer,  an  effective 
preacher,  a  skilful  diplomatist  and  a  most  racy  story- 
teller. In  him  the  universal  Yankee  was  raised  to  the 
highest  power  in  an  original  personality,  enriched  by 
varied  culture,  broadened  by  wide  experience  and  sanc- 
tified by  religion.  He  had  in  him  the  stuff  of  which 
heroes  and  the  founders  of  states  are  made.  He  was  a 
leader,  politician,  saint." 


^be  Ipublic  press 

anb 

Ertracts  from  Xetters  of 

fxicnbs 


THE  PUBLIC  PRESS 

Dr.  Hamlin's  death  was  widely  noticed  in  the  daily 
press  as  well  as  in  the  weekly  religious  periodicals.  Sev- 
eral papers  published  extended  sketches  of  his  life,  in 
some  cases  illustrated  with  more  or  less  successful  por- 
trait cuts.  The  Portland  and  Bangor  papers  naturally 
led  in  the  space  given  to  one  who  was  always  a  devoted 
son  of  Maine  and  had  spent  some  nine  years  of  his  life 
in  those  two  cities.  One  of  the  most  interesting  of  the 
tributes  paid  his  life  and  character  was  the  editorial  in 
the  Boston  Herald  of  August  lo,  1900,  which  we  print 
here  in  full ;  interesting  because  coming  from  a  secular 
paper  having  no  special  interest  in  missions  and  there- 
fore unprejudiced  in  favor  of  the  subject  of  the  edi- 
torial : 

The  sudden  death  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Cyrus  Hamlin,  ex-president 
of  Robert  College,  Turkey,  warrants  calling  public  attention  to 
the  character  of  his  work  which  he  performed  in  the  East,  and  the 
indication  which  that  work  gives  of  how  much  more  can  be  ac- 
complished in  the  way  of  uplifting  mankind  by  a  relatively  small 
outlay  of  money  for  educational  purposes  than  by  spending  vast 
sums  in  the  effort  to  forcibly  govern  men.  Dr.  Hamlin,  the  prin- 
cipal of  a  missionary  boys'  school  at  Constantinople,  induced  the 


Q/f.  Cyrus  Hafnlin 

late  C.  R.  Robert  of  New  York  to  give  him  the  not  over  large  sum 
of  money  needed  to  found  a  college  in  Turkey,  in  which  modern 
literature  and  science,  with  the  principles  of  religion  and  civiliza- 
tion, should  be  taught  For  years  past  this  college  has  afforded 
to  the  subjects  of  the  Sultan  the  educational  opportunities  in  their 
own  land  that  before  its  establishment  they  could  obtain  nowhere 
in  Turkey.  It  is  easy  to  understand — considering  the  admitted  re- 
sults that  have  followed  the  use  of  this  opportunity — why  the  Sul- 
tan for  a  long  time  refused  to  give  his  approval  to  the  enterprise. 
An  Englishman  of  long  experience  in  the  Balkan  peninsula  wrote 
some  time  since,  in  referring  to  the  political  development  of  the 
Bulgarian  people,  that  Bulgarian  independence  and  the  success 
which  the  people  of  that  country  had  met  with  in  maintaining 
their  government  was  due,  more  than  anything  else,  to  the  fact 
that  a  number  of  their  leading  men  were  graduates  of  Robert  Col- 
lege, Constantinople.  These  men  had  acquired  a  knowledge  of 
government  methods,  and  were  thus  prepared,  when  the  occasion 
was  presented,  to  embody  this  knowledge  in  practical  government 
work.  He  expressed  it  as  his  belief  that  the  opportunities  af- 
forded in  Robert  College  had  more  to  do  with  the  political  and 
social  regeneration  of  the  people  of  what  had  been  northern  Tur- 
key than  any  other  one  cause,  and  that  it  was  a  greater  power 
for  good  in  this  respect  than  the  wishes  of  the  people  themselves 
or  the  armies  of  Russia,  as  in  the  absence  of  this  aptitude,  there 
would  have  been  no  native  of  Bulgaria  fitted  to  govern  that  coun- 
try even  if  its  people  had  secured  the  substance  of  political  inde- 
pendence. No  better  illustration  than  this  can  be  given  of  the 
effect  of  a  wisely  directed  expenditure  of  money  on  educational 
lines  in  uplifting  an  oppressed  people. 

t2^  t^^  «^^ 

The  Outlook  of  New  York  and  the  Independent  of  the 
same  city  published  extended  and  interesting  editorial 
articles  on  Dr.  Hamlin.  From  that  in  the  Outlook  we 
quote  a  portion : 

The   caricature   of  the   Christian   missionary  presented   in  the 


Editorial  in  the  ^^ Outlook''  05 

comic  papers,  and  sometimes  in  form  scarcely  less  grotesque  in 
pen-and-ink  portraits  in  the  daily  press,  bears  about  the  same  re- 
lation to  the  real  personage  that  the  "Uncle  Sam"  of  caricature, 
with  his  hatchet  face,  his  straggling  beard,  and  his  striped  panta- 
loons, does  to  the  cultured  American  of  to-day.  There  have  been 
some  weak  and  ineffective  men  in  the  missionary  service,  as  there 
have  been  in  law,  in  medicine,  in  journalism,  and  in  military  and 
mercantile  careers.  But  probably  the  proportion  of  such  failures 
in  the  missionary  field  is  less  than  in  any  other  department  of 
human  activity.  The  strugggle  is  greater,  success  is  more  difficult 
of  achievement,  the  aids  are  fewer,  the  individual  is  thrown  more 
upon  his  own  resources,  the  appeals  to  ambition  are  less,  the  im- 
mediate rewards  are  insignificant;  the  consequence  is  that  this  serv- 
ice developes  the  best  that  is  in  men,  and  generally  sifts  out  and 
either  returns  home  or  relegates  to  subordinate  positions  those  of 
inferior  character.  Dr.  Hamlin  was  certainly  more  than  an 
average  missionary,  but  he  was  far  more  representative  of  his 
class  than  are  the  distorted  portraits  of  the  secular  satirists. 

The  story  of  his  life,  as  he  has  told  it  in  his  autobiography — "The 
Life  and  Times  of  Cyrus  Hamlin" — ranks  among  the  most  dramat- 
ic and  entertaining  of  autobiographical  narratives ;  yet  the  stories 
of  adventure  with  which  this  book  abounds  lose  much  of  their  in- 
terest in  being  interpreted  by  the  pen ;  no  one  could  know  the  spirit 
of  the  man  who  never  heard  him  tell  some  of  these  stories:  the 
audience  that  elicited  the  best  telling  was  one  of  boys  and  girls ; 
the  best  audience-room  was  a  family  sitting-room,  illuminated  by 
the  flickering  light  of  a  wood  fire.  To  see  this  naive  narrator  of 
his  own  unconscious  heroism  giving  his  reminiscences  to  such  an 
audience  was  a  scene  not  easily  to  be  forgotten.  We  shall  not  at- 
tempt here  either  to  repeat  the  story  of  his  life  in  outline  or  to 
illustrate  it  by  incidents ;  neither  is  possible ;  we  must  refer  our 
readers  to  the  book  itself. 

Genius  is,  first  of  all,  life;  the  channel  which  life  cuts  for  itself, 
or  finds  for  itself,  or  has  cut  or  found  for  it,  depends  on  educa- 
tion and  circumstances.  The  great  merchant  might  have  been  a 
great  soldier,  the  great  preacher  might  have  been  a  great  states- 
man ;  Chatham  might  have  been  a  Chalmers,  Lincoln  might  have 
made  a  Lowell.    Dr.  Hamlin  was  the  unofficial  representative  of 


g6  Cyrus  Hamlin 


American  interests  in  Constantinople  at  a  time  when  America 
did  not  dream  of  being  a  world-power.  His  skill  in  dealing  with 
the  Porte,  despite  the  religious  prejudices  of  the  Mohammedans 
against  the  "Christian  dogs,"  showed  qualities  which  would  have 
given  their  possessor  a  front  rank  among  the  diplomatists  of 
Europe  had  he  been  born  into  diplomatic  ranks.  In  the  Crimean 
war  his  executive  ability  in  fighting  the  cholera  among  the  Brit- 
ish soldiery,  and  in  supplementing  their  wretchedly  inadequate 
commissariat  by  his  own  efforts,  proved  him  the  possessor  of  exec- 
utive abilities  which  would  have  made  him  a  great  Secretary 
or  Minister  had  his  life  been  directed  into  political  channels.  His 
mechanical  genius,  displayed  even  in  college,  and  serving  him  in 
good  stead  in  introducing  material  civilization  into  the  Ottoman 
Empire,  indicated  qualities  which  might  have  made  him  a  great 
engineer,  if  not  a  great  inventor.  His  creation  and  administra- 
tion of  Robert  College,  and  his  subsequent  work  at  Middlebury 
College  at  an  age  when  most  men  are  retiring  from  active  labor, 
are  sufficient  to  enroll  his  name  among  the  educational  pioneers  of 
his  age;  no  one  man  has  done  more,  relatively,  for  education  in 
Great  Britain  or  the  United  States  than  Dr.  Hamlin  did  for  educa- 
tion in  the  Turkish  Empire,  by  setting  a  pace  which  Mohamme- 
dan schools  have  been  compelled  to  follow.  He  was  too  busy  do- 
ing things  to  cultivate  the  graces  of  either  an  oratorical  or  a  lit- 
erary style;  but  he  was  fascinating  both  as  a  speaker  and  as  a 
writer,  and  if  the  platform  and  the  pen  had  been  chosen  instru- 
ments for  exerting  his  influence  on  the  world,  it  is  not  doubtful 
that  he  could  and  would  have  taken  a  front  rank  as  author  and 
orator. 

In  theology  Dr.  Hamlin  was  a  liberal  in  his  youth;  but  while 
he  was  dealing  in  a  foreign  land  with  the  problems  of  life,  his 
contemporaries,  who  were  dealing  with  the  problems  of  thought, 
passed  him  on  the  road,  and  he  became  a  conservative  in  theology 
without  changing  his  convictions.  His  position  changed,  but  not 
his  opinions.  But  this  change  of  position,  while  it  sometimes  sad- 
dened, never  embittered  him ;  he  felt  the  separation  from  old- 
time  friends,  but  never  ceased  his  friendship.  His  spiritual  faith, 
in  passing  from  that  of  childhood  to  that  of  old  age,  gained  in 
strength  without  losing  in  simplicity;  and  his  simple  trust  in  God 


Notice  in  the  *^ Independent  "  gy 


as  a  Friend  and  a  Provider  was  only  deepened  by  the  trials  to 
which  it  was  subjected.  Hope  is  thought  to  be  an  attribute  of  youth; 
experience  is  thought  to  dim  if  not  to  destroy  it;  rarely  are  men 
pessimists  before  they  reach  middle  age.  Dr.  Hamlin  had  the 
fine  temper  of  Paul,  and  with  him  could  have  said,  "Experience 
worketh  hope."  He  remained  young  till  the  last;  in  his  life  was 
fulfilled  the  promise  of  the  ancient  prophets.  Isaiah's  promise 
might  be  taken  as  the  outline  of  Dr.  Hamlin's  biography :  he 
waited  upon  the  Lord  and  renewed  his  strength;  in  his  youth  he 
mounted  up  as  on  eagle's  wings ;  in  his  manhood  he  ran  and  was 
not  weary;  in  his  old  age  he  walked  and  fainted  not. 

^3^  t^*  e^^ 

From  the  notice  in  the  Independent  of  Aug.  i6,  1900: 

Dr.  Cyrus  Hamlin,  the  missionary  to  Turkey  and  the  founder  of 
Robert  College,  who  died  last  week  in  his  ninetieth  year,  was  al- 
most the  last  of  the  band  of  pioneers  in  missionary  work  in  the 
Levant.  Dr.  Elias  Riggs,  his  senior  by  a  few  months,  still  lives 
at  Constantinople,  and  Dr.  Geo.  W.  Wood  is  a  resident  in  this 
country.  Drs.  W.  G.  Schauflfler,  William  Goodell  and  H.  G.  O. 
Dwight  died  some  years  ago. 

The  early  years  of  missions  in  that  section  did  not  furnish  the 
experiences  that  made  Burma,  the  South  Seas  and  Africa  famous, 
but  exigencies  calling  for  the  clearest  of  judgment  and  executive 
ability  of  a  high  order,  as  well  as  the  ripest  scholarship,  were 
numerous,  and  the  men  who  met  them  were  all  notable  men.  Dr. 
Hamlin  was  perhaps  the  best  known.  This  was  due  partly  to  his 
intense  personality,  partly  to  the  fact  that  the  enterprises  with 
which  his  name  is  associated  were  such  as  to  bring  him  into  pub- 
lic notice.  He  impressed  himself  on  every  one  he  met,  and  every- 
thing which  he  undertook.  Na  one  who  ever  saw  or  heard  him 
could  forget  him,  and  no  life  into  which  he  entered  could  be  there- 
after just  the  same.  He  was  keen-sighted,  seeing  with  almost  un- 
erring vision  the  things  which  needed  to  be  done ;  intense,  driving 
toward  that  object  with  an  energy  wkich  overbore  all  opposition 
and  compelled,  if  not  the  acquiescence,  at  least  the  permission,  of 


gS  Cyrus  Hamlin 

opponents  as  well  as  associates.  This  very  intensity  at  times  car- 
ried him  beyond  his  goal,  until  it  became  a  saying  among  the  more 
conservative  missionaries.  "Go  in  the  same  direction  as  Brother 
Hamlin,  but  about  two-thirds  as  far,  and  you  will  hit  just  right." 
In  nothing  was  this  more  manifest  than  in  the  conduct  of  the 
famous  bakery  which  he  started  for  the  benefit  of  the  English 
soldiers  during  the  Crimean  war.  It  seemed  to  some  scarcely  the 
kind  of  work  appropriate  for  a  missionary.  He  believed,  however, 
that  he  was  sent  to  do  good  to  men's  bodies  as  well  as  their  souls, 
and  he  could  not  see  that  Englishmen  were  any  less  valuable  than 
Armenians,  Greeks  or  Turks.  He  carried  his  point,  saved  multi- 
tudes of  lives,  and  the  proceeds  were  set  apart  into  a  fund  which 
supplied  many  an  evangelical  community  in  the  Empire  with  the 
cliapel  or  church  without  which  the  work  would  have  been  se- 
riously hampered.  Similarly,  he  believed  in  using  mission  funds 
to  teach  trades  by  which  the  converts  could  support  themselves  at 
a  time  when  very  nearly  every  kind  of  labor  was  practically  for- 
bidden to  them.  Outvoted  in  the  mission  meeting,  he  accepted 
the  decision,  but  after  all  forced  reconsideration  by  making  it  evi- 
dent that  the  only  alternatives  were  starvation  or  charity,  and  won 
the  cordial  support  of  even  those  who  had  voted  against  him. 

lie*********** 

His  great  versatility  and  broad  catholic  sympathies  brought  him 
into  very  close  relations  with  the  natives,  v/ho  looked  upon  him  as 
their  special  champion.  His  knowledge  of  the  languages  was,  per- 
haps, less  "grammatic,"  to  use  an  Armenian's  expression,  than  that 
of  his  associate.  Dr.  Riggs,  but  it  was  more  "idiotic"  (idiomatic), 
and  he  was  one  with  them  as  few  missionaries  have  ever  been.  In- 
tensely sympathetic,  he  won  love  on  every  hand,  even  from  those 
who  doubted  the  wisdom  of  his  schemes  and  dreaded  the  keen- 
ness of  his  criticisms.  No  difference  of  opinion  hindered  the 
most  cordial  personal  relation,  and  it  is  as  a  personal  friend  that 
he  will  be  most  missed.  He  loved  Turkey  and  Turkish  missions 
with  his  whole  soul,  and  a  short  time  before  his  death,  speaking  of 
the  beyond,  he  said  that  what  might  be  there  he  could  not  say, 
but  if  it  were  possible  he  hoped  he  might  receive  a  mandate  to  fly 
back  to  the  land  where  he  labored  so  long  and  the  people  to  whose 
welfare  he  had  consecrated  his  life. 


Other  Press  Notices  gg 

The  Chicago  Tribune  of  Aug.  lO,  1900,  printed  an  arti- 
cle characteristically  western  and  journalistic  on  the  life 
of  Dr.  Hamlin,  with  a  portrait.  The  opening  paragraph 
and  sub-headings  are  given,  as  an  illustration  of  the  way 
in  which  the  picturesque  elements  of  Dr.  Hamlin's  ca- 
reer struck  the  Chicago  journalist's  mind.  Under  the 
irreverent,  but  not  uncomplimentary  "scare-head"  title 
— "Typical  Yankee  is  Dead," — were  the  sub-titles:  "Dr. 
Cyrus  Hamlin  possessed  all  American  traits.  Life 
sketch  of  a  man  who  served  fifty  years  as  a  missionary 
in  Turkey,  reveals  that  he  exercised  all  the  ingenuity  of 
Benjamin  Franklin  and  the  tact  of  Abraham  Lincoln. — 
The  great  work  he  accomplished. — The  founder  of  Rob- 
ert College."  Then  follows  the  sketch,  beginning  with 
this  paragraph : 

Dr.  Cyrus  Hamlin,  who  died  in  Portland,  Me.,  on  Wednesday, 
in  his  seventieth  year  {sic),  was  as  original  and  distinguished  an 
American  character  as  Benjamin  Franklin  or  Abraham  Lincoln. 
For  fifty  years  a  missionary  at  Constantinople,  he  was  first  of  all 
an  original  educator.  But  in  order  to  secure  imperial  sanction  for 
the  colleges  which  he  founded,  he  had  to  be  a  diplomat,  and  that 
of  the  highest  character ;  and  in  order  to  provide  for  the  pupils  in 
those  institutions,  especially  to  provide  means  by  which  they 
could  do  something  for  their  own  support,  he  had  to  invent  forms 
of  practicable  industries,  construct  machinery,  and  himself  do 
everything  which  an  inventor,  architect,  engineer  or  farmer  may 
do  to  create  a  plant  and  put  everything  into  working  order.  He 
was  a  Christian  missionary  with  about  all  the  added  practical 
qualities  associated  with  the  typical  Yankee. 

And  how  Cyrus  Hamlin  came  naturally  and  by  the  grace  of  his 
early  breeding  and  home  training  to  be  all  this  makes  a  story  that 
is  full  of  romance.    He  was  of  Huguenot  descent,  America  gain- 


lOO  Cyrus  Hamlin 

ing  what  France  lost  by  that  blunder  of  the  revocation  of  the 
edict  of  Nantes. 

j^*'  ^^  «^* 

The  New  York  Tribune,  in  a  brief  but  warmly  appre- 
ciative notice,  used  these  words : 

The  late  Dr.  Hamlin  occupies  a  conspicuous  and  honored 
place  in  history  as  the  creator  of  free  Bulgaria.  It  was  he  who 
began  at  Bebek  and  conducted  on  a  great  scale  at  Robert  Col- 
lege that  education  of  Bulgarian  youth  which  led  directly  to  the 
uprising  in  that  country  against  Turkish  tyranny.  The  value  of 
his  work  for  civilization  and  enlightenment  and  for  human  free- 
dom in  the  dark  places  of  the  Orient  is  above  all  estimation. 

The  Rochester  Democrat  and  Chronicle  also  printed  an 
appreciative  sketch  which  was  reproduced  in  the  Troy 
Times  and  other  papers.  Here  also  the  heading-  of  the 
notice  is  interesting  as  showing  the  impression  made  by 
Dr.  Hamlin's  career  on  a  mind  noti  specially  attracted 
toward  missionary  work :  "Missionary  and  Educator. 
The  death  of  an  Oriental  Conqueror — A  Man  of  Power." 
Particularly  sympathetic  and  appreciative  were  the  esti- 
mate contributed  by  Dr.  J.  L.  Barton  to  the  Congrega- 
tionalist,  and  the  somewhat  extended  sketch  in  the  Octo- 
ber Missionary  Herald,  by  the  Rev.  A.  F.  SchaufBer,  D.D., 
a  son  of  Dr.  Hamlin's  beloved  colleague  in  mission  work, 
the  late  Dr.  W.  G.  Schauffler.  Following  are  ex- 
tracts from  this  sketch,  which  was  accompanied  by  an 


Dr.   Schauffiers  Sketch  joi 

excellent  portrait,  similar  to  that  reproduced  here  by  the 
kind  permission  of  the  Student  Volunteer  Movement 
Committee  of  the  International  Y.  M.  C.  A. 

In  the  early  days  of  the  Turkish  missions  there  were  at  Con- 
stantinople five  missionaries  of  preeminent  ability.  They  were 
Drs.  Goodell,  Riggs,  Dwight,  Hamlin  and  SchaufBer.  Each  in  his 
line  would  have  been  a  marked  man  in  any  community.  . 
Dr.  Hamlin  stood  somewhat  apart  in  this  group  of  five,  for  his 
line  of  work  led  him  into  a  sphere  of  activity  which  was  most 
unique.  Probably  to  no  missionary  of  modern  times  has  it  been 
given  to  play  so  important  and  so  varied  a  role  as  fell  to  his  lot. 

As  Dr.  Hamlin  had  gone  to  the  East  for  the  specific  purpose 
of  establishing  a  school  for  Armenians,  he  at  once  set  about  his 
plans  for  carrying  out  this  idea.  In  November,  1840,  he  secured 
a  house,  and  opened  the  school  known  for  many  years  as  the  Be- 
bek  Seminary,  so  called  because  it  was  situated  in  a  village  on  the 
Bosphorus  by  that  name.  The  very  prosperity  of  this  institution 
soon  brought  on  the  school  the  wrathful  persecution  of  the  Ar- 
menian patriarch  and  his  coadjutors.  Many  of  the  students  were 
poor,  and  when  to  their  natural  poverty  was  added  persecution 
they  were  indeed  in  straits.  But  just  here  the  mechanical  genius 
of  their  instructor  came  in.  He  established  a  workshop  where  the 
students  could  learn  the  art  of  making  sheet-iron  stoves  and  stove- 
pipes, which  were  much  needed  in  the  metropolis,  as  there  were 
neither  furnaces  nor  fireplaces  in  all  the  city.  To  this  was  added, 
later  on,  the  manufacturing  of  rat-traps,  which  proved  to  be  a 
fruitful  source  of  income  to  the  persecuted  Armenians.  But,  like 
all  other  things,  the  sm.aller,  in  this  case,  led  to  the  larger.  There 
was,  at  this  time,  no  bakery  in  all  the  city  that  furnished  sweet 
bread.  All  that  could  be  had  was  leavened  bread,  which,  of  course, 
was  sour.  Dr.  Hamlin  bethought  himself  that  here  was  a  promis- 
ing field  in  which  to  employ  his  persecuted  friends.  Difficulties 
there  were  in  appalling  number,  but  in  the  case  of  Dr.  Hamlin 
these  were  not  obstacles,  but  incentives  to  harder  work.  To  be- 
come baker,  he  must,  however,  first  become  miller,  and  to  be  mil- 
ler, he  must  be  architect.    For  the  needed  buildings  must  first  be 


I02  Cyrus  Hamlin 

erected,  and  the  mill  established,  and  the  flour  be  ground,  before 
the  first  loaf  could  be  turned  out.  For  all  this,  moreover,  he  had 
to  be  financier,  for  the  Board  could  not  advance  funds  for  work 
of  this  sort.  But  Dr.  Hamlin  was  equal  to  all  these  demands,  for 
he  got  his  money,  built  his  flour  mill,  set  up  his  machinery,  built 
his  ovens,  taught  the  men  how  to  make  bread,  and,  finally,  found 
a  market  for  his  whole  product.  Our  space  is  far  too  limited  to 
go  into  all  the  multitudinous  details  of  how  this  was  triumphantly 
accomplished,  or  of  how  many  unexpected  difficulties  were  en- 
countered and  surmounted.  It  is  a  most  fascinating  tale,  which 
all  may  well  read  in  Dr.  Hamlin's  story  of  "My  Life  and  Times." 

Then  came  the  Crimean  war,  with  its  thousands  of  British 
soldiers  in  Constantinople,  and  its  unutterably  miserable  and  con- 
temptible commissariat  department.  The  soldiers  in  the  great 
Scutari  hospital  were  dying  of  neglect,  and  loathed  the  sour  bread 
that  was  furnished  them.  Fortunate  for  them  it  was  that  an 
American  missionary  with  a  genius  for  bread-making  was  on  the 
ground.  Tons  of  bread  a  day  were  furnished  for  the  dying  sol- 
diers from  the  Hamlin  bakery.  And  not  only  so,  but  owing  to  the 
necessities  of  the  case,  Dr.  Hamlin  accepted  the  position  of  army 
launderer,  and  washed  tens  of  thousands  of  soiled  garments,  he 
himself  inventing  the  washing  machines  that  were  needed  for  this 
kind  of  wholesale  work.  In  the  meantime,  cholera  broke  out  sav- 
agely, not  only  in  the  army,  but  among  the  poor  of  the  city.  Here 
again  our  universal  genius  showed  his  many-sided  activity  and  re- 
sourcefulness, and  prepared  what  was  known  for  years  as  the 
"Hamlin  mixture,"  which  was  efficacious  in  curing  many.  He  also 
turned  nurse,  and  went  from  house  to  house,  prescribing,  advising, 
nursing  with  an  energy  that  was  little  short  of  the  miraculous. 
My  earliest  memories  of  Dr.  Hamlin  date  back  to  these  stirring 
times,  when  he  was  here  and  there  and  everywhere,  always  direct- 
ing, never  discouraged,  never  defeated.  In  all  Constantinople,  in 
those  days,  there  were  two  men  who  were  paramount  in  their 
triumphs.  These  were  the  English  ambassador.  Lord  Stratford  de 
Redcliffe,  and  Dr.  Hamlin.  Compared  with  these  two,  neither  the 
French  ambassador  nor  Lord  Raglan  cut  any  figure. 

How  successful,  even  from  a  financial  standpoint,  all  these  mul- 
tifarious activities  were,  witness  to  the  fact  that,  after  paying  all 


His  Personality  lOJ 


expenses,  there  were  left  many  thousands  of  dollars  profit,  all 
used  for  the  erection  of  churches  and  schools  in  the  Ottoman 
empire. 

But  the  greatest  achievement  of  his  life  was  still  to  come.  After 
the  close  of  the  Crimean  war  came  the  establishment  of  Robert 
College.  The  story  of  this  most  notable  institution  has  been 
told  so  often  that  we  can  only  say,  that  while  what  Dr.  Hamlin 
had  already  achieved  would  have  given  him  an  imperishable  name 
in  the  East,  this  added  to  his  laurel  wreath  its  most  luxuriant 
branch.  In  the  lapse  of  years,  when  the  final  story  of  the  en- 
lightenment of  the  East  comes  to  be  told,  the  influence  of  Rob- 
ert College  will  be  given  the  weight  due  to  it,  and  then,  and  only 
then,  will  the  debt  that  the  East  owes  to  Dr.  Hamlin  be  fully  un- 
derstood. 

Our  sketch  has  already  run  beyond  our  first  intent,  and  we 
can  only  allude  to  Dr.  Hamlin's  work  after  his  return  to  his  na- 
tive land  in  the  briefest  terms.  Splendid  service  was  rendered 
by  him  as  Professor  in  Bangor  Theological  Seminary,  and  after- 
wards as  President  of  Middlebury  College,  while  all  the  time  he 
was  ever  ready  to  speak  most  effectively  on  missionary  themes. 
For  him  to  be  inactive  was  not  possible,  and  the  result  was  that 
almost  to  the  last  day,  yes,  quite  to  the  last  day,  of  his  pilgrimage, 
he  was  at  work  for  his  Master. 

And  now,  if  it  be  permitted,  I  would  like  to  add  a  few  words 
as  to  Dr.  Hamlin's  personality,  as  marked  by  those  of  us  who  were 
privileged  to  see  him  in  our  boyhood  days.  We  always  regarded 
him  as  a  man  by  himself,  and  not  just  like  the  other  missionaries. 
While  he  had  a  good  deal  of  iron  in  his  character,  we  still  loved 
to  gather  around  him  on  Christmas  nights,  and  hear  him  tell  his 
stories,  whether  they  related  to  experiences  of  his  boyhood  in 
Maine,  or  his  larger  exploits  of  mature  manhood.  Roars  of 
laughter  would  greet  in  particular  his  famous  "Screech  Owl"  story, 
while  shivers  or  vague  dread  were  intermingled  with  laughter  as 
he  recounted  the  tale  of  their  being  lost  in  the  Maine  woods.  We 
knew  him  as  uncompromising  in  his  opposition  to  those  whom  he 
thought  were  wrong.  I  remember  once  having  to  copy  a  docu- 
ment from  his  pen,  bearing  on  the  attitude  of  certain  of  the  native 
converts  who  had  taken  a  wrong  stand.      Each  paragraph  began 


104  Cyrus  Hamlin 


with  the  sentence,  "It  is  a  lie."   Yet  we  knew  that  his  conduct  was 
dictated  by  his  iron  conscience. 

His  sermons,  of  which  we  heard  many,  were  cool,  clear  cut, 
calm,  convincing,  such  as  one  would  expect  from  one  who  dealt 
so  much  in  mathematical  formulae.  If  he  had  any  difficult  task 
to  achieve,  we  never  for  a  moment  doubted  that,  whatever  the 
difficulties,  they  would  all  be  triumphantly  overcome.  We  knew, 
too,  that  his  tenderness  towards  those  in  want  or  those  diseased 
was  never-ending,  and  that  he  would  as  gladly  and  carefully  min- 
ister to  the  meanest  porter  in  the  village,  as  the  richest  pasha. 
Had  we  known  of  the  incidents  of  his  boyhood,  so  vividly  given 
in  "My  Life  and  Times",  we  could  have  seen  that  the  boy  was 
father  to  the  man,  and  that  in  ingeniously  constructing  his  first 
model  of  a  steam  engine,  he  was  giving  promise  of  his  mill  and 
bakery;  or  that  in  his  indomitable  perseverance  in  the  matter  of 
the  yoke  for  his  oxen,  he  was  only  forestalling  his  equally  un- 
conquerable perseverance  in  overcoming  vastly  greater  difficulties 
in  his  manhood.  What  he  was  at  sixteen  years  of  age  in  embryo, 
that  he  was  at  sixty  in  the  full  tide  of  dominant  manhood.  The 
consecration  that  led  the  boy  to  give  his  seven  cents  for  missions 
(which  was  his  all,  at  that  time),  led  him  in  riper  years  to  give 
his  tens  of  thousands  to  the  same  blessed  cause.  Grace  laid  hold 
of  him  while  young,  and  developed  in  him,  steadily,  certain  heroic 
characteristics,  till  they  reached  the  fullness  of  maturity.  That  he 
had  his  faults,  none  would  acknowledge  more  swiftly  than  he,  but 
they  were  due  to  those  very  virtues  of  which  we  have  made  record 
above.  Of  such  a  life  the  end  was  most  worthy.  Only  a  few  days 
before  he  passed  away,  he  wrote  to  one  of  those  who  had  known 
him  intimately  in  his  days  of  intensest  activity  in  Constantinople, 
and  said  in  the  closing  paragraph  of  the  letter:  "P.S.  Health 
good;  strength  feeble;  memory,  hearing,  seeing,  all  failing;  latter 
half  of  my  ninetieth  year.  The  past  wonderful,  the  future  cheer- 
ful with  faith  and  hope." 

Farewell,  thou  iron  man  of  God,  who  like  Elijah  didst  not  fear 
the  face  of  man,  and  who  like  Paul  didst  ever  forget  the  things 
that  were  behind,  and  look  forward  to  those  that  were  before. 
The  world  is  much  better  because  thou  didst  dwell  in  it  for  a 
few  years,  and  heaven  itself  is   richer  because  thou   hast  been 


A  Sheaf  of  Extracts  jo^ 

translated  thither.  We  are  glad  to  have  been  blessed  by  thy  life, 
and  glad  that  now  at  last  thou  hast  received  thy  reward,  and  hast 
entered  into  thy  rest. 

(3*  f2f^  t^* 

A  further  sheaf  of  extracts  from  notices  of  the  life  and 
character 'of  the  great  missionary,  gathered  from  various 
rehgious  and  other  periodicals,  will  furnish  additional 
evidence  of  the  affection  as  well  as  the  admiration  in 
which  he  was  held  in  widely  separated  quarters. 

From  a  sketch  in  the  Ticonderoga  Sentinel,  by  Rev. 
Joseph  Cook : 

Ex-President  Cyrus  Hamlin,  who  died  at  Portland,  Me.,  Au- 
gust 8th,  has  left  a  name  that  will  be  inseparably  connected  with 
the  Champlain  Valley  as  well  as  with  the  banks  of  the  Bosphorus. 

■l^%^^.■l^^^■)^1^•»^■i^1^■t^1^ 
Dr.  Hamlin  was  five  years  President  of  Middlebury  College. 
His  administration  gave  new  life  to  all  departments  of  the  college 
and  began  the  prosperous  career  which  has  since  continued. 
When  Dr.  Hamlin  visited  Middlebury  at  its  recent  Centennial 
celebration  his  brief  but  very  impressive  address  was  received  by 
professors,  alumni  and  students  with  cyclones  of  applause. 

A  polygonal  soul  in  both  mind  and  heart,  Dr.  Hamlin's  chief 
characteristics  were  the  variety  and  opulence  of  his  native  en- 
dowments. He  was  brilliantly  successful  as  a  preacher,  as  ar 
educational  organizer  and  leader,  as  an  instructor  in  the  mechani* 
cal  arts,  as  practically  a  diplomat  and  statesman,  as  a  polemic  and 
reformer,  as  a  professor  of  theology,  ethics  and  philosophy,  as 
an  autobiographer  and  as  college  president.  The  many-sided 
character  of  his  endowments  and  career  reminds  one  of  Benjamin 
Franklin.  The  devoutness  and  wisdom  of  his  religious  activity 
made  him  unquestionably  the  foremost  as  he  was,  at  his  death, 
the  oldest  missionary  of  the   American  Board.     His  memory  is 


lo6  Cyrus  Ha??ilin 

now  a  star  in  the  sky  of  history  and  will  be  a  priceless  inspiration 
to  all  who  behold  it  for  generations  to  come,  and  especially  to 
those  who  are  so  greatly  indebted  to  his  career  on  the  banks  of  the 
Eosphorus  and  in  the  Valley  of  Lake  Champlain  and  in  the  high 
places  of  the  church  in  New  England  and  the  nation  at  large. 

From  another  issue  of  the  same : 

Many  readers  will  remember  the  venerable  Cyrus  Hamlin,  D.D., 
who  has  several  times  been  a  guest  at  Cliff  Seat,  and  who  has 
told  the  story  of  his  founding  of  Robert  College  of  Constantinople, 
to  a  deeply  interested  audience  in  the  Congregational  church  of 
this  town.  Dr.  Hamlin  was  the  first  President  of  this  college 
on  the  Eosphorus.  On  his  return  to  this  country  he  was,  for  sev- 
eral years,  President  of  Middlebury  College,  Vermont.  A  lunch- 
eon was  given  this  veteran  missionary  and  educator  at  the  Eelle- 
vue  Hotel,  Boston,  January  Sth,  which  was  the  89th  anniversary 
of  his  birth.  Twenty-five,  including  Dr.  Hamlin,  his  wife  and 
daughter,  sat  down  to  luncheon  in  the  Eanquet  Hall  of  this  ele- 
gant new  hotel  on  Beacon  Street.  The  secretaries  of  the  Ameri- 
can Board  and  the  Woman's  Board  of  Missions  were  present 
besides  other  special  friends  of  the  man  whom  they  all  delighted 
to  honor.  Dr.  Hamlin  is  in  such  vigorous  health  that  he  came 
into  Boston  from  Lexington,  his  suburban  home,  the  first  day  of 
January  to  attend  the  services  at  Park  St.  Church  when  Joseph 
Cook  spoke  on  "Mr.  Moody  as  Evangelist  and  Biblical  Educa- 
tor." When  remonstrated  with  for  venturing  out  in  the  driving 
snow  storm  Dr.  Hamlin  scouted  the  idea  of  "a  Maine  boy  being 
afraid  of  a  few  snow  flakes !"  After  dinner  speeches  fol- 
lowed the  luncheon  in  which  both  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Joseph  Cook 
took  part.  Dr.  Hamlin  himself  spoke  thirty-five  minutes,  recount- 
ing some  of  the  apparent  disasters  of  his  missionary  career  in 
Turkey  which  were  providentially  turned  into  blessings.  In 
closing  the  company  joined  in  singing  Dr.  Rankin's  well  known 
hymn  of  world-wide  usage:  "God  be  with  you  till  we  meet  again." 

t^*  <^^  t^^ 

From  the  Chicago  Advance: 

In  the  ninetieth  year  of  his  age  Dr.  Cyrus  Hamlin  passed  into 


Notice  in  the  ^^ Advance"  lOJ 


the  ageless  state  at  Portland,  Maine,  on  Wednesday  last.  It  may 
justly  be  said  that  among  the  remarkable  men  of  his  times  his 
place  is  well  towards  the  front. 

His  greatest  service  to  the  world  was  in  connection  with  the 
establishment  and  development  of  Robert  College,  Constantinople. 

The  story  of  the  college  while  Dr.  Hamlin  was  at  its  head  is 
a  romance  of  labor,  patience  and  pluck  which  has  few  equals.  He 
had  to  outwait  and  outwit  the  wily  Turk,  and  when  waiting  ceased 
to  be  a  virtue  he  always  found  some  way  to  force  the  hand  of  the 
Sultan  and  get  the  thing  which  he  desired.  He  planned  like  a 
Solomon,  and  worked  like  a  Hercules — but  more  wisely  and  with 
less  violence — and  taught  like  a  Socrates — a  Christian  Socrates — 
and  all  the  time  behaved  like  a  servant  of  Christ.  Of  course  he 
succeeded.  It  was  not  in  him  to  fail.  He  was  a  far-seeing  states- 
man, and  was  one  of  the  few  diplomatists  who  never  came  out 
second  best  in  any  conflict  with  the  Turkish  court. 

As  to  the  value  of  his  educational  work  it  cannot  be  measured 
by  statistical  standards.  His  monument  can  be  seen  only  in  part 
by  going  to  the  campus  of  Robert  College  and  looking  around  you. 
There  you  will  find  the  edifices  where  he  taught  and  the  equip- 
ment for  higher  education  which  he  was  largely  instrumental  in 
procuring,  but  his  important  and  enduring  monument  must  be 
sought  for  in  the  lives  and  characters  of  his  pupils.  He  has  in- 
fluenced hundreds  of  lives  for  good,  and  in  so  doing  he  has  been 
writing,  in  part,  the  history  of  the  Turkish  Empire  for  years  to 
come. 

As  a  man  of  afifairs  for  doing  all  sorts  of  things  that  varying 
circumstances  might  require,  Cyrus  Hamlin  was  a  Yankee  of 
the  highest  type,  reinforced  by  a  dash  of  French  brilliancy  in- 
herited from  his  Huguenot  ancestors.  This  appeared  in  his  boy- 
hood. He  could  do  wonderful  things  with  that  jackknife  the 
history  of  which  is  related  in  his  autobiography.  He  and  his 
brother  made  a  highly  finished  ox-yoke  when  Cyrus  was  about 
thirteen  years  old,  a  yoke  which  was  the  wonder  of  the  whole 
neighborhood.  They  painted  it  a  brilliant  red,  and  Michael  An- 
gelo  could  not  have  looked  at  his  completed  statue  of  Moses  with 
greater  satisfaction  than  that  which  filled  the  breasts  of  those 
Hamlin  brothers  when  the  yoke  was  finished.    Cyrus  said,  "Many 


Io8  Cyrus  Hamlin 

a  time  have  I  stood  before  it  with  my  hands  in  my  pockets,  to 
drink  in  the  unmatched  splendors."  And  it  was  not  a  toy  yoke, 
but  a  yoke  for  use. 

He  put  his  Yankee  inventiveness  and  mechanical  skill  to  good 
use  in  Turkey.  He  established  an  industrial  annex  in  Bebek 
Seminary  in  which  the  students  made  sheet-iron  stoves  and  various 
household  articles.  He  built  a  mill  for  grinding  flour,  and  made 
the  best  bread  in  Turkey  when  good  bread  was  very  much  needed. 
He  tempered  steel  picks  for  dressing  the  buhrstone  of  his  mill 
when  English  and  French  mechanics  had  failed.  He  taught  the 
English  how  to  wash  and  laundry  clothes  in  their  hospitals,  during 
the  Crimean  war.  He  said  of  himself,  in  view  of  the  many  call- 
ings in  which  he  had  successfully  engaged :  "I  am  told  that  my 
dear  college  frend.  Dr.  Bartol,  has  humorously  assigned  to  me  six- 
teen professions.  I  have  never  seen  the  list  which  his  brilliant 
imagination  has  produced,  but  I  presume  he  did  not  include  what 
I  am  most  proud  of — the  profession  of  washerwoman !" 

And  the  versatility  of  Dr.  Hamlin  appeared  more  conspicuously 
in  activities  more  closely  connected  with  his  great  life  work.  He 
was  a  forcible  and  brilliant  writer.  If  our  readers  desire  ample 
proof  of  this  fact  let  them  read  his  "Life  and  Times."  It  is  one 
of  the  raciest,  most  characteristic  autobiographies  of  the  century. 
In  wit  and  graphic  delineation  of  character  and  situations  it  stands 
beside  Dr.  Arthur  Smith's  "Chinese  Characteristics,"  and  "Vil- 
lage Life."  He  was  an  impressive  speaker.  When  speaking  of 
the  wrongs  which  the  Armenians  had  suffered  at  the  hands  of  the 
Turks  his  moral  indignation  and  power  of  righteous  invective  re- 
minded one  of  Gladstone. 

We  shall  never  forget  the  last  time  that  we  saw  and  heard  him. 
It  was  on  the  platform  of  the  American  Board  meeting  at  Provi- 
dence. He  was  assisted  to  the  platform,  not  to  make  a  speech, 
but  to  make  an  impression  by  his  presence  and  by  the  ripeness 
of  his  Christian  character.  He  said  only  a  few  words,  but  he 
did  not  need  to  speak  in  order  to  produce  a  deep  impression.  His 
noble  head  and  face,  and  the  remembrance  of  what  he  was  and 
what  he  had  done  would  greatly  impress  any  audience. 

Some  are  saying  in  these  times  of  trouble  in  China  that  we 
should  not  send  missionaries  to  foreign  lands.     Could  there  be  a 


Extracts  froin  Letters  log 

greater  misjudgment?  Missionaries  have  been  the  pioneers  of 
progress  in  all  lands,  and  in  missionary  service  some  of  the  noblest 
characters  of  modern  times  have  been  trained.  Such  names  as 
Carey,  Livingstone,  Judson,  Paton  and  Hamlin  shine  like  stars, 
and  they  shall  shine  as  the  brightness  of  the  firmament,  for  ever 
and  ever. 

^^  ^^  t2^ 

Extracts  from  Letters  of  Friends 
^^ 

From  the  late  Rev.  George  W.  Wood,  D.  D.,  the  for- 
mer associate  of  Dr.  Hamlin  in  the  Seminary  at  Bebek, 
and  his  lifelong  and  intimate  friend,  to  Mrs.  Hamlin : 

Geneseo,  August  15,  1900. 

Our  sorrow  is  great,  but  with  how  much  of  joy  and  thankful- 
ness is  it  mingled !  We  feel  keenly  the  bereavement  which  so 
affects  our — and  especially  your — immediate  future;  but  for  him 
how  blessed  the  exaltation  and  rapture  of  the  new  experience ! 

In  looking  over  several  of  Brother  Hamlin's  notes  to  me  of  the 

last  few  years,  I  am  deeply  affected  by  his  characteristic  modes 
of  exhibiting  his  excellences  of  Christian  character,  especially  his 
sense  of  personal  unworthiness,  combined  with  unwavering  trust 
in  the  grace  that  redeems  and  saves,  and  the  evidence  of  the  tri- 
umph of  that  grace  in  preparing  him  for  that  to  which  in  its 
fulness,  he  has  now  attained.  How  precious  are  the  mementoes 
of  gratitude  and  love  which  he  has  left  to  Christian  friends  and 
benefactors  in  this  country  and  in  Europe,  and  to  the  peoples  of 
the  East  ini  whose  destiny  he  has  become  a  factor  for  good  that 
will  transmit  his  name  with  honor  to  future  generations ! 
************ 

What  reunions  are  before  us:  are  you  impatient  for  th«m? 


1 10  Cyrus  Ha^nlin 

Patience  a  little  longer,  and  in  God's  boundless  mercy  they  will 
be  ours  also. 

Your  brother  in  the  fellowship  of  a  great  affliction  and 
consolation. 

George  W.  Wood. 

t^^  t^^  ^y* 

From  Dr.  George  Faulkner,  of  Jamaica  Plain,  Mass., 
a  beloved  cousin  and  intimate  friend  of  Dr.  Hamlin,  to 
Professor  Hamlin  of  New  York  : 

My  dear  Alfred: — 

I  have  just  read  your  affectionate  note  telling  me  of  the 
last  hours  of  your  blessed  father. 

How  happily  Providence  arranges  for  us  some  of  the  great 
events  of  our  lives ! 

I  write  with  much  effort  and  can  only  send  my  tenderest  re- 
gards to  your  widowed  mother,  to  you  and  to  all  the  children  of 
the  great  saint,  their  father. 

Yours  truly, 

George  Faulkner. 
Jamaica  Plain,  August  lo,  1900. 

5^*  ^^  t^^ 

From  Hon.  S.  B.  Capen,  President  of  the  American 
Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Missions,  to  Pro- 
fessor Hamlin : 

Boston,  August  10,  1900. 

Let  me  assure  yoii  and  Mrs.  Hamlin  and  all  the  members  of  your 
family  of  my  very  sincere  sympathy  in  this  hour  of  sorrow.  Yet 
in  it  all,  what  an  hour  of  joy  it  must  be  also.  What  a  father  you 
have  had !     He  has  been  one  of  the  great  men  of  this  century  and 


Extracts  fro77i  Letters  m 

people  are  appreciating  him  and  his  work  more  and  more.  Al- 
most everywhere  that  I  have  spoken  for  the  Board  I  have  alluded 
to  him  as  "The  Christian  Statesman."  We  call  this  change 
Death,  but  it  is  Hie  in  a  peculiar  sense  for  him.  And  he  can  never 
die  more  in  this  world.  He  lives  in  thousands  of  others  and  will 
continue  to  do  so  forever.  It  is  a  great  joy  to  me  that  I  have 
seen  so  much  of  him  lately,  and  a  recent  letter  from  him  will  be 

a  valued  treasure 

Sincerely  yours, 

Samuel  B.  Capen. 

^^  t^^  *^^ 

From  Rev.  J.  E.  Rankin,  D.D.,  formerly  of  Washing- 
ton, D.  C: 

Bennington,  Vt.,  August  lo,  1900. 
Dear  Mrs.  Hamlin: 

"The  chariots  of  Israel  and  the  horsemen  thereof!" 
And  so  your  husband  completes  the  century  where  there  is  no 
change  of  years.  I  thought  of  him  all  day  yesterday,  as  among 
the  glorious  things  that  "eye  hath  not  seen." 

God  gave  him  a  great  and  wonderful  work  to  do  in  the  old 
world  and  in  the  new.  But  the  doing  of  this  work,  the  reflex  in- 
fluence of  it,  shows  the  value  of  it.  He  was  thus  transformed  into 
his  Master's  image,  who  is  the  first-born  among  many  brethren. 
Dr.  Hamlin  never  entered  any  man's  house  without  seeming  to 
say,  "Peace  be  to  this  house."  Our  remembrances  of  him  are  very 
sweet.     We  are  impoverished  by  his  departure. 

************ 

f^^  ^^  t^' 

From  the  late  Rev.  Geo.  L.  Prentiss,  D.D.,  of  Union 
Theological  Seminary,  New  York  City,  one  of  Dr.  Ham- 
lin's oldest  and  most  intimate  friends : 


JJ2  Cyrus  Hamlin 

Dorset,  Vt.,  August  12,  1900. 
My  dear  Mrs.  Hamlin: 

I  cannot  say  that  the  news  of  your  husband's  sudden  de- 
parture for  the  "better  country"  surprised  me.  When  we  kissed 
each  other  good-bye  on  July  9,  I  felt  that  it  was  probably  for  the 
last  time,  and  I  think  he  had  the  same  feeling.  Well,  I  wish  him 
joy  and  should  be  ashamed  to  mourn  for  him.  He  is  one  of  my 
oldest  ajid  dearest  friends  still ;  only  I  shall  now  think  of  him  as 
in  Heaven  and  not  in  Lexington.  And  what  a  wonderful  Sabbath 
Day  he  is  spending  there!  It  is  hard  not  to  be  envious  of  his 
"pure  delight."  But  we  can  afford  to  wait;  it  will  not  be  for 
very  long. 

His  last  visit  to  Dorset  was  a  veritable  benediction  to  us  all.  It 
could  not  have  been  a  more  fitting  and  happy  closing  up  of  our 
long  earthly  intercourse  and  fellowship — "Our  friendship  is  beau- 
tiful and  lovely"  he  wrote  me  after  his  return  to  Lexington.  His 
last  words,  in  a  still  later  note,  were:  "I  am  well  now  but  waiting. 
Dominus  vohiscum  et  nohiscum." 

^^  t^*  e^^ 

From  the  veteran  Missionary,  Rev.  Dr.  W.  A.  Farns- 
worth : 

Talas  (Cesarea),  Aug.  29,  1900. 
My  dear  Sister: 

A  few  days  ago  I  received  a  letter  from  Miss  Burrage, 
telling  of  an  interesting  farewell  meeting  in  Boston  when  Dr. 
Hamlin  was  present  and  pronounced  the  benediction.  That  meet- 
ing, as  I  understand,  was  Aug.  2nd.  The  Levant  Herald  of  Aug. 
loth  reports  the  death  of  Dr.  Hamlin.  His  departure  must  have 
been  very  sudden,  yet  I  suppose  it  could  not  have  been  altogether 
unexpected. 

But  in  your  loneliness  you  must  find  a  great  consolation  in  the 
noble  record  that  Dr.  Hamlin  has  left.  Probably  no  one  of  that 
very  remarkable  band  of  missionaries  who  were  carrying  on  the 


Extracts  from  Letters  //j 

work  in  Turkey  in  the  early  days  of  the  mission  is  now  mentioned 
so  often,  or  is  so  well  remembered  as  is  Dr.  Hamlin.  To  you 
and  to  all  his  children  he  leaves  a  noble  record,  an  inheritance 
more  precious  than  millions  of  gold  and  silver. 

From  Rev.  H.  A.  Schauffler,  D.D.,  of  Cleveland,  Ohio, 
a  son  of  Dr.  Hamlin's  beloved  colleague  in  Constantino- 
ple, the  late  Rev.  W.  G.  Schauflfler,  D.D. : 

York  Village,  Me.,  Aug.  7,  1900. 
My  dear  Mrs.  Hamlin: 

Only  a  few  weeks  ago  I  received  a  letter  from  Dr. 
Hamlin,  in  which  he  spoke  of  my  parents  with  all  the  old  time 
affection  and  told  me  of  his  own  growing  infirmities,  adding  that 
the  past  was  "wonderful"  and  the  future  full  of  hope.  And  now 
that  bright  "hope"  has  changed  into  glorious  fruition  and  blessed 
experience. 

For  us,  who  "a  little  longer  wait,"  he  has  left  a  legacy  of  in- 
spiring memories.  I  never  knew  any  one  more  gladly  ready  to 
sacrifice  himself  for  others  than  he  was.  And  how  willingly  he 
used  his  brilliant  talents,  his  great  knowledge  and  his  wonderful 
power  in  the  service  of  God  and  his  fellow  men ! 

Most  truly  do  I  sympathize  with  you  and  all  the  family  in  the 
sudden  loss  that  has  come  to  you.  But  I  know  that  the  Lord's 
comfort  will  abound  toward  you  and  that  he  will  give  you  strength 
for  the  days — lonely  though  they  may  sometimes  be — that  are  be- 
fore you. 

With  the  expression  of  my  sincerest  sympathy,  I  am  yours  in 
the  blessed  memories  of  the  past  and  the  bright  hopes  of  the 
future. 

Henry  A.  Schaxjffler. 

Ji         Jt         J^ 

Hrom  Mrs.  William  Swan,  a  near  neighbor  and  friend 


11^  Cyrus  Hamlin 

in  the   English  colony  at  Constantinople,   during  Dr. 
Hamlin's  residence  there : 

Bebek,  September  19,  1900. 
What  a  beautiful  life  and  what  a  beautiful  death!  Just 
as  he  wished  to  die — working  for  the  Master  till  the  very  last  and 
passing  away  without  suflfering,  which  is  such  a  comfort  to  those 
left  behind.  How  often  we  think  of  those  days  long  ago,  when 
we  were  neighbors,  and  experienced  so  much  kindness  from  both 
Dr.  Hamlin  and  you;  we  can  never  forget  them.  We  have  just 
been  reading  the  reminiscences  in  the  Congregationalist,  and  tbey 
bring  back  to  us  so  vividly  his  personality.  We  could  just  think 
we  heard  him  speaking. 

The  separation  is  only  for  a  short  time.  We  are  all  nearing  home 
now  and  shall  meet  our  dear  ones  again  where  sorrow  and  part- 
ing are  unknown. 


From  Dr.  H.  B.  Frissell,  Principal  of  the  Hampton 
Normal  and  Agricultural  Institute : 

Allow  me  to  express  my  sympathy  with  you  in  the  loss 
of  your  great  and  good  husband,  whose  life  has  been  an  inspira- 
tion to  every  man  that  was  trying  to  do  anything  for  the  good  of 
his  fellows.  I  am  very  thankful  that  he  came  to  see  us  at  Hamp- 
ton and  that  my  boys  and  girls  had  a  chance  to  hear  the  won- 
derful story  of  his  life. 

The  influence  of  that  life  has  been  tremendous,  not  only  in  the 
East,  but  as  giving  to  all  missionary  workers  an  example  of  what 
is  possible  with  God's  help. 

Sincerely  yours, 

H.  B.  Frissell. 


Extracts  from  Letters  ii^ 

From  the  late  P.  C.  Headley,  the  well-known  author, 
a  near  neighbor  and  friend  of  Dr.  Hamlin's  at  Lex- 
ington : 

Dear  Mrs.  Hamlin: 

Among  the  deeply  sympathising,  you  will  let  me,  from 
a  solitude  Dr.  Hamlin  brightened  with  heavenly  light,  send  words 
of  inexpressible  loneliness  for  the  brief  time  that  remains  to  me, 
in  fellowship  with  the  great  loss  which  only  the  near  reunion 
can  relieve.  Oh !  how  cheering  the  memory  of  his  clear  faith  to 
the  loving  thought  and  grateful  memory  of  millions. 

Let  me  have  a  place  sometimes  in  the  words  of  prayer  for  a  wel- 
come to  join  him  where  it  is  written  "neither  can  they  die  any 
more." 

In  grateful  waiting, 

P.  C.  Headley. 

t^^  t^^  t^^ 

From  Professor  Foster  of  the  Theological  Seminary, 

at  Oakland,  Cal. : 

Oakland,  August  20,  1900. 
My  dear  Mrs.  Hamlin: 

Mrs.  Foster  and  I  wish  to  express  to  you  our  sense  of 
loss  with  you  and  your  family,  in  the  death  of  Dr.  Hamlin.  My 
own  great  admiration  I  have  expressed  as  well  as  I  could  in  the 
enclosed  editorial  in  the  Pacific.  But  there  are  many  personal 
ties  between  Dr.  Hamlin  and  myself  to  which  I  could  not  give 
public  expression  and  many  feelings  arising  from  them  which 
lend  an  altogether  individual  and  personal  character  to  my  sense 
of  affliction. 

Dr.  Hamlin's  race  was  run  and  exceedingly  well  run.  It  was 
the  time  seen  in  the  Providence  of  God  to  be  due  for  his  depart- 
ure. He  has  entered  on  higher  activities  and  greater  joys.  Now 
we  must  look  forward  to  joining  him  in  due  time  and  to  partici- 
pating in  the  rest  and  blessings  of  heaven.  May  we  all  gain 
them  by  the  mercy  of  God ! 


77^  Cyrus  Hamlin 

Words  fail  me  to  express  what  I  feel,  but  you  may  be  sure,  my 
dear  Madam,  that  we,  with  a  great  multitude  of  other  friends 
mourn  with  you,  and  would  be  glad  in  any  way  to  sustain  you  in 
this  hour  of  bereavement,  by  word  or  deed. 

Very  sincerely  yours, 

Frank  H.  Foster. 

^^  ^^  t^* 

From  Mr.  S.  M.  Minasian,  of  Brooklyn: 

I  was  a  great  deal  with  Dr.  Hamlin  in  the  years  gone 
by,  from  1842  to  1875  or  1880  and  afterwards.  I  was  in  his  fam- 
ily four  years  from  1852  to  1856,  and  was  intimately  connected 
with  him  in  all  his  business  enterprises  during  the  Crimean  war. 
I  have  seen  him  in  the  sunshine  and  under  the  shadow.  I  have 
seen  him  in  all  his  works  and  in  all  his  moods,  and  I  felt  deeply 
convinced,  long  ago,  that  he  was  a  rare  man — a  great  man — espec- 
ially fitted  by  God  for  the  time  and  generation  in  which  he  lived : 
and  the  Armenians  to  whose  service  Dr.  Hamlin  especially  dedi- 
cated his  life,  will  rise  up  and  call  him  blessed. 

Dr.  Hamlin's  death  has  made  a  great  void.  Who  is  going  to 
fill  that  void  ?    May  the  Lord  raise  the  man ! 

^3^  <^^  t^^ 

These  extracts  could  not  more  fittingly  be  closed  than 
with  the  following  admirable  and  sympathetic  apprecia- 
tion by  Rev.  Dr.  J.  L.  Barton  in  the  Congregationalist, 
prepared,  before  Dr.  Hamlin's  death,  to  accompany  the 
first  of  Dr.  Hamlin's  "Backward  Looks  over  an  Eventful 
Life,"  in  that  paper : 

Dr.  Hamlin's  indomitable  perseverance  and  persistent  purpose 
not  to  be  discouraged  or  defeated  in  the  execution  of  plans  he 


An  Appreciation  iiy 

knew  to  be  right,  more  than  anything  else,  characterize  his  life 
and  labors.  The  missionaries  associated  with  him  learned  by  ex- 
perience that  they  would  have  to  yield  sooner  or  later,  and  even 
the  Sultan  himself,  after  using  every  resisting  source  that  he  dared 
employ,  granted  the  imperial  irade  for  Robert  college. 

Had  Dr.  Hamlin  entered  politics  in  his  younger  days  he  would 
have  been  a  leader  in  statesmanship.  As  a  diplomat  he  would 
have  held  a  place  among  the  men  who  direct  the  destiny  of  na- 
tions. It  is  generally  accepted  that  the  Sultan  of  Turkey  suc- 
ceeds in  outwitting  the  best  diplomats  of  the  world  powers.  This 
is  true  not  only  of  the  present  incumbent  of  that  title.  Others 
have  been  less  unscrupulous,  but  not  less  astute.  Dr.  Hamlin 
was  never  known  to  come  out  second  best  in  a  tilt  with  his  im- 
perial majesty  or  with  any  of  his  ministers.  A  decree  is  issued 
to  close  his  school.  Officers  come  to  carrj'  out  the  order  and 
find  no  school  to  close.  The  work  has  been  done  for  them.  In 
a  brief  time  the  school  is  reassembled  and  everything  is  going  on 
as  before.  The  engineers  of  Constantinople  combine  against  the 
missionaries,  and  the  teacher  at  Bebek  breaks  up  the  combination 
and  secures  from  them  a  contribution  of  £50  to  carry  on  his  work. 
The  Gregorians  open  a  boycotting  persecution  against  the  little 
handful  of  Protestants,  intending  to  starve  them  out,  and  the  ad- 
vocate of  industries  opens  a  rat-trap  factory,  a  baker  shop  and  a 
laundry,  and  the  Protestants  grow  healthy  and  wealthy  with  hon- 
est toil. 

In  his  ninetieth  year  the  fire  of  the  prime  of  his  manhood  still 
burns,  and  the  energy  that  caused  opponents  to  stand  aside  and 
the  Sultan  himself  to  yield  has  not  departed. 

He  conceived  the  idea,  amid  almost  universal  opposition,  that 
higher  education  in  mission  fields  should  be  imparted  through  the 
medium  of  the  English  language,  and  that  industries,  in  one  form 
or  another,  should  be  taught  as  a  part  of  the  educational  system. 


jjS  Cyrus  Hatnlin 

These  two  principles  are  well-known  steps  in  the  chain  of  events 
that  led  to  the  conception  and  erection  of  Robert  college,  and 
to-day,  after  more  than  half  a  century,  they  are  in  almost  univer- 
sal application  in  the  foreign  mission  work  of  all  the  leading 
boards. 

All  of  his  early  pupils  carried  with  them  to  their  distant  homes, 
and  those  who  have  died  to  their  graves,  the  distinct  stamp  made 
upon  them  by  this  man  of  genuine  sympathy  and  yet  of  masterful 
energy.  Only  a  few  months  ago  I  saw  a  letter  from  one  of  these 
old  pupils,  now  a  high  official  in  the  Turkish  government.  It  was 
full  of  a  spirit  of  love  and  devotion  to  the  teacher  whom  the 
writer  delighted  to  honor.  In  the  living-room  of  many  a  humble 
home  in  Armenia  and  Koordistan  the  only  picture  upon  the  dark 
and  bare  walls  is  the  face  of  the  teacher  whom  his  faithful  pupils 
never  ceased  to  love  and  of  whom  the  persistently  unfaithful  ones 
never  ceased  to  stand  in  holy  awe.  He  occupies  to-day  in  the 
hearts  of  some  of  the  leading  Protestants  in  Turkey  a  place  simi- 
lar to  that  occupied  by  the  saints  in  the  calendar  of  the  old  Gre- 
gorian devotees.  They  do  not  pray  to  him,  but  they  thank  God 
for  him. 


DATE  DUE 

lUMIIII      J 

» 

«#Mm"> 

m^^^'""^ 

~       '      . 

GAYLORD 

PRINTED  IN  U.S.*. 

